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ICO Notes
Selected WOC 2010 Presentations Now Online

July 2010

Dear ICO Members and Friends,

A few additional reports from the 2010 World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin:

1. Selected WOC 2010 Presentations Online

It is my pleasure to announce the ICO has made 30 scientific and related presentations from various World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC) 2010 symposia available for viewing (audio and slides) online. The presentations are available at no cost through financial support of the ICOFoundation.

The selected presentations were chosen by the WOC 2010 Scientific Program Committee and you can find them on the ICO Web site at: www.icoph.org/woc2010webcasts.

Content areas include cataract, glaucoma, cornea, retina, eye trauma, pediatric ophthalmology, gene therapy, contact lenses, uveitis and more, with six presentations from the World Ophthalmic Educational Colloquium.

I encourage you to view these selected WOC webcasts to enjoy a sample of what the 2010 WOC had to offer. Please feel free to share the link to these presentations with members of your society and your colleagues.

2. New ICO Website is Live

Please visit and explore the new ICO Web site: www.icoph.org. I hope you find the new look and format to your liking.

We’d like this site to serve as the primary information hub for the ICO, our members and community. Leaders, educators, and other ophthalmologists can access what we think is a more user-friendly, visually appealing site, featuring ICO and international ophthalmology news, helpful educational resources, and event listings.

Some highlights of the new ICO Web site include:

News
Keep up with the latest news in international ophthalmology by visiting the news section, and use RSS feeds to subscribe to certain news categories. A searchable listing will help you locate feature articles and topics you want to read about.

Resources
Find and share resources for ophthalmic education (such as the ICO Clinical Guidelines and curricula), advocacy, research, organizational and leadership development and more.

Events
We now offer a categorized, searchable events calendar to help you find what meetings and events most interest you.

The current categories are just the foundation of our site and we will soon be adding the ability for you to customize (save and store) site content; rate, review, and share resources; and connect with others who share your interests.  I hope you will visit the new site and let us know if you have suggestions or feedback.

Please include a link to the ICO on your society Web site and link to any specific information or resources you feel may be of interest to your members.  If you would like help doing this, contact ICO Communications Manager Monica Slater at mslater@icoph.org.

3. New ICO Members and Dues

I am happy to report we have approved six new societies for membership in the International Council of Ophthalmology at our recent meetings in Berlin.

Please join me in welcoming the Bahrain Ophthalmological Association, Mongolian Ophthalmological Society, Congolese Society of Ophthalmology, American Ophthalmological Society (AOS), Pacific Eye Care Society (PacEYES), and the Retina Society to the ICO as our newest members.

A current list of ICO Members is available for download here: www.icoph.org/downloads/ICOMembership2010.pdf. (PDF – 80 KB)

I would like to thank all of our current members for supporting the ICO by paying annual dues. We had a great response (the best in ICO history) to our request for member dues payments this year, and we really appreciate your support.

The current ICO membership dues rate is three Swiss Francs per society member, and at our meeting in Berlin, the General Assembly voted to maintain the same rate. We will be contacting member societies about 2011 dues this November.

Together with the other ICO leaders, I thank you all very much for partnering with the ICO in our mutual effort to preserve and restore vision.

4. Strategic Planning for International Ophthalmology and the ICO

The ICO has begun a new strategic planning process to address the future directions for international ophthalmology and the ICO’s specific role.

We began this year’s strategic planning process by engaging ICO Representatives in discussion at this year’s General Assembly at WOC 2010 in Berlin. We will continue to connect with ICO members and leaders of other ophthalmologic organizations on the future of international ophthalmology and how we can all work together to enhance eye care worldwide. Within this wider context, we will then create the specific plans for the ICO in the next five years.

The ICO has conducted several strategic planning processes in the past. We met in Mexico City in 1993, developed the Vision for the Future in 1999, and had a smaller planning meeting in Zurich in 2006.

We will continue the strategic planning discussions with surveys and planning sessions later this year and next spring. We expect to receive valuable input from ophthalmologic society leaders, educators, and others and we look forward to sharing our findings and plans with you.

With warm regards,

Bruce

Bruce Spivey, MD, MS, MEd
President, International Council of Ophthalmology

945 Green Street
San Francisco, CA, 94133, USA
Fax: (1-415) 409-8403
spivey@icoph.org
www.icoph.org