IFOS Notes:
Training Eye Care Providers To Meet Public Needs
Dear IFOS Members,
The recent adoption by the World Health Assembly of a resolution calling for increased support for prevention of blindness and visual loss underlines a critical need and suggests a major challenge for international ophthalmology.
The critical need is for training of more ophthalmologists and other eye care providers around the world to meet the needs of the public for eye care and thereby prevent avoidable blindness and visual loss.
The challenge is for international ophthalmology, particularly national and subspecialty ophthalmologic societies, to provide the leadership for training those personnel, with a clear goal of increasing access to quality eye care around the world.
The International Council of Ophthalmology/International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (ICO/IFOS) has already accepted that challenge. We are committed to enhancing ophthalmic education to meet public needs, particularly in developing countries. We have already made significant strides and have multiple resources to offer, as described below.
In this IFOS Notes we call on national ophthalmologic societies, subspecialty societies and individual ophthalmologists to accept the challenge as well. As a first step, we ask that you schedule a presentation from the ICO at your society’s next Congress on “A Critical Challenge for Ophthalmology: How To Train Those Required To Meet the Public Need for Eye Care.”
1. WHA Calls for Training of Eye Care Personnel
As I reported to you last month, the resolution on increasing support for prevention of blindness and visual loss that was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May calls on countries to:
- reinforce efforts to define national VISION 2020 plans
- mobilize domestic funding to support VISION 2020
- include prevention of blindness in national development plans and goals
- integrate prevention of blindness into primary health care
- develop and strengthen eye care services and integrate them in the existing health care system, including training and re-training of health workers in visual health.
(You can download the full resolution from: www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA59/A59_R25-en.pdf.)
The World Health Organization (WHO), the VISION 2020 global initiative and now the World Health Assembly all recognize that a major obstacle to prevention of blindness and visual loss is the lack of trained ophthalmologists and other eye care personnel to provide the care that is needed.
2. The Challenge for Ophthalmology
Training the ophthalmologists and other personnel required to meet the needs of the public is an area where ophthalmology can and should take the leadership.
The ICO has developed significant programs to support ophthalmic education, and we call on ophthalmologic societies to take the leadership in your countries and subspecialties to define the training that is needed and help develop training programs.
3. Resources Available to Societies
The ICO has significant resources available to help you, including draft principles and curricula for the training of:
The ICO also offers:
In addition, the Council has worked with the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria on an initiative to enhance residency training in Nigeria that can serve as a model and inspiration for other countries. See www.icoph.org/ed for more details on what the ICO is doing to support training.
4. Corporate and Private Initiatives
The VISION 2020 global initiative has a Human Resource Working Group (HRWG), which is focused on training the providers needed to provide the care that is needed. The HRWG has been asked to take responsibility for the development of five “IAPB – Carl Zeiss Training Centers.”
Zeiss is donating $200,000 per year for five years to support the development of five eye care training centers in different regions of the world.
In addition, the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation has given the International Council of Ophthalmology Foundation (ICOFoundation) an award of $150,000 to establish a model Eli Lilly Diabetic Eye Disease Center in partnership with the ICO.
So there is growing support for training and a great opportunity for ophthalmology to provide leadership. I urge you to take on this challenge.
5. Please Let Us Speak at your Next Congress
We are asking IFOS members and other ophthalmologic societies to allocate 10 to 15 minutes at the opening ceremonies or another plenary session at your next Congress for an ICO presentation on “A Critical Challenge for Ophthalmology: How To Train Those Required To Meet the Public Need for Eye Care”.
When you let us know the date and time, we will arrange for someone from the Council or your IFOS Representative to speak on:
- the unmet public need for eye care
- the challenge to international ophthalmology to take the leadership on training
- what the ICO/IFOS is and what we are doing to support training
- what other societies and individual ophthalmologists can do
- the resources available to help you.
ICO Advocacy Director Hugh Taylor, MD, will be contacting the official Representatives to IFOS from members to ask them to work with their societies to coordinate this presentation. You can contact Dr. Taylor at advocacy@icoph.org.
6. IFOS General Assembly Minutes on ICO Web Site
We have posted the official minutes of the 2006 IFOS General Assembly in São Paulo at www.icoph.org/ic/ifos06min.html for your information and future reference.
There are also news items related to IFOS and the General Assembly in São Paulo at www.icoph.org/news/sao2.html, with other news from the World Ophthalmology Congress at www.icoph.org/news/sao3.html.
For the latest news of ICO/IFOS and international ophthalmology, you can always check at www.icoph.org.
In the next IFOS Notes, I will report to you on the meeting in Zurich early this month to begin to plan for the future of the ICO/IFOS.
With warm regards,
Bruce Spivey, MD
ICO President
945 Green Street
San Francisco, CA, 94133, USA
(1-415) 409-8410
Fax: (1-415) 409-8403
spivey@icoph.org
www.icoph.org
International Council of Ophthalmology