ICO Leader Letter:
Countries with Minimal Ophthalmic Presence

March 2005, Volume 2, Number 3

In This Issue:

1. Countries with Minimal Ophthalmic Presence (Fritz Naumann, MD)

2. Focus on Training Ophthalmologists and Allied Personnel (Jacob Pe'er, MD)

3. ICO Symposium on Managing Cataract Blindness (Mark Tso, MD)

4. 2006 Congress Offers Free Registration to IFOS Representatives (Rubens Belfort, MD)

5. IFOS General Assembly on February 20, 2006 (Bruce Spivey, MD)

6. Seventh IFOS/ICO Newsletter Available for Printing (Pran Nagpal, MD)

7. Coming in the April ICO Leader Letter

8. More News

9. Request for other News and Resources

10. Forward the ICO Leader Letter to your Colleagues

11. Comments, Change of Address, Privacy Policy, Subscribe and Unsubscribe

1. Countries with Minimal Ophthalmic Presence

Dear Colleagues:

Fritz Naumann, MD

We hope that the initiatives in Nigeria will serve as a model and inspiration for other countries and regions. But we recognize that there are vast unmet needs for eye care around the world and many countries with so few ophthalmologists that it is unrealistic to expect them to meet the needs of the population.

At our meeting in New Orleans in October, the Council agreed that we are obligated to do what we can to support training in countries with no ophthalmologic society and minimal ophthalmic presence.

Jacob Pe'er, MD, has agreed to chair and Hannah Faal, MD, and Daud Kahn, MD, to co-chair a Committee to focus on this problem. Dr. Pe'er reports on the Committee's preliminary plans below.

Thanks to those who have agreed to take on this important responsibility.

- Fritz Naumann, MD, ICO President

2. Focus on Training Ophthalmologists and Allied Personnel

Jacob Pe'er, MD

Since the ICO clearly does not have the resources to support, much less provide, such training itself, we will work closely with the major supranational societies and seek financial support for whatever initiatives we define.

We will also collaborate with the VISION 2020 Human Resources Working Group co-chaired by ICO Secretary General Bruce Spivey, MD and "Para" Pararajasegaram, FRCS, FRCP, FRCOphth, of the World Health Organization.

Our first task will be to assess in which countries the needs are greatest. Clearly, many will be in Sub-Saharan Africa. But there are other countries throughout the world where the unmet need for eye care is great.

Co-chairs of the Committee are Hannah Faal, MD, (The Gambia) and Daud Khan, MD, (Pakistan). Other members include: Moses Chirambo, MD, (Malawi), Para (Geneva), Ravi Thomas, MD, (India), and Bo Wiafe, MD, (Zambia).

I would appreciate any suggestions that ophthalmologic leaders have for this challenging work.

- Jacob Pe'er, MD, Co-Chair, Committee on Countries with Minimal Ophthalmic Presence and Member of the Advisory Committee to the ICO

3. ICO Symposium on Managing Cataract Blindness at the Asia Pacific Congress

Mark Tso, MD

The ICO symposium will feature speakers from different parts of Asia reporting on medical, technological, operational, and manpower innovations in managing cataract blindness. They will discuss the demand for cataract surgery in Asia, how to organize effective surgical teams, innovative ways to reduce costs and the next generation of cataract techniques.

For details, see: www.apao2005.com.my/contents/Main/icodetails.htm.

Other Congresses of supranational ophthalmologic societies this spring:

• March 18 - 21, 2005, Santiago, Chile XXV Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology (www.panamoftchile.cl)
  
  
• April 7 - 10, 2005, Dubai, United Arab Emirates VIII International Congress of the Pan Arab African Council of Ophthalmology (www.paaco2005.com)

- Mark Tso, MD, ICO Vice President and Education Coordinator

4. 2006 World Congress offers Free Registration to IFOS Representatives

World Ophthalmology Congress Logo

The organizers of the 2006 World Ophthalmology Congress (also the XXX International Congress of Ophthalmology), scheduled February 20 - 24 in São Paulo, Brazil, want to have every national society of ophthalmology in the world represented.

As an incentive, we will provide free registration to the official Representative to the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS) from each national society.

Societies should inform ICO Secretary General Bruce Spivey (spivey@icoph.org) no later than November 2005 who your IFOS representative in São Paulo will be. Dr. Spivey will coordinate registration for IFOS Representatives with us. (See below for more on the IFOS General Assembly and dues.)

We are also offering free registration to the first author of the best free paper on ophthalmology and the best free paper on prevention of blindness from each country, as determined by the national ophthalmologic society. For more details, see www.ophthalmology2006.com.br/best.php.

You can register now for the Congress on our newly redesigned Web site at: www.ophthalmology2006.com.br. Note that March 31 is the deadline for early bird registration, for which there are significant discounts.

- Rubens Belfort, MD, President of the XXX Congress and ICO Council Member

5. IFOS General Assembly on February 20, 2006

Bruce Spivey, MD

Treasurer Balder Gloor, MD, will send a dues (subscription) notice to IFOS member societies this November, and dues should be submitted no later than January 15, 2006. Dues are three (3) CHF per member of the society, with exceptions possible for societies in developing countries.

Dues must be paid for IFOS Representatives to be eligible for free registration (see above) and to vote at the IFOS General Assembly.

Please check at www.icoph.org/soc/ifos.cfm to make sure that our listing of your society's address and officers is correct. If it is not, see www.icoph.org/soc/update.cfm for information on how to revise the listing.

- Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO Secretary General

6. Seventh IFOS/ICO Newsletter Available for Printing and Distribution

Pran Nagpal, MD

The 2005 IFOS/ICO Newsletter has been published and can be downloaded (along with previous issues) from the ICO Eye Site at www.icoph.org/news/newsletter.html.

The Newsletter is printed and mailed to all members of IFOS once each year.

The Council has encouraged national societies to seek grants to cover the cost of printing and distributing the IFOS/ICO Newsletter to all ophthalmologists in their countries, particularly where many do not have Internet access. The Newsletter can be printed directly from the PDF file at www.icoph.org/pdf/ifosnews7.pdf (1.2 MB).

Send me news of international ophthalmology for the next IFOS/ICO Newsletter at manishad1@sancharnet.in.

- Pran Nagpal, MD, IFOS/ICO Newsletter Editor and ICO Council Member

7. Coming in the April ICO Leader Letter:

Plans for the ICO Meeting on May 11 in Florence

8. More News

For more news of the ICO and international ophthalmology and resources for ophthalmologic leaders, see the ICO's Eye Site at www.icoph.org.

9. Request for Other News and Resources

Do you have other news of international ophthalmology or know resources (particularly on the Web) that would be valuable to society leaders? Please let us know at leader@icoph.org.

10. Forward the ICO Leader Letter to your Colleagues:

If there are other ophthalmologic leaders you think might be interested in seeing this ICO Leader Letter, please forward this issue to them by clicking on this link.

11. Comments, Change of Address, Privacy Policy, Subscribe and Unsubscribe

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