ICO Leader Letter:
New Afghanistan Eye Doctors Society

May 2005, Volume 2, Number 5

In This Issue:

1. First Congress of Afghanistan Eye Doctors Society (Fritz Naumann, MD)

2. PAACO Becomes MACO: the Middle-East African Council of Ophthalmology (Bruce Spivey, MD)

3. Nigerian Society To Raise Funds for Residency Resource Centers (Bruce Spivey, MD)

4. Deadlines for 2006 World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo (Rubens Belfort, MD)

5. Aravind Offers Cataract Guide, VISION 2020 e-Resource and SiteNews (Hugh Taylor, MD)

6. ICOFoundation Board Adds Hilel Lewis, Paul Lichter and James Mazzo (Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD)

7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings

8. Coming in the June ICO Leader Letter

9. More News

10. Request for other News and Resources

11. Forward the ICO Leader Letter to your Colleagues

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

First Congress of Afghanistan Eye Doctors Society

Dear Colleagues:

Fritz Naumann, MD

Afghani Minister of Health Dr. Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimi spoke at the Congress, and 59 of the 80 ophthalmologists in Afghanistan participated.

The Congress approved the constitution of the Society and elected the leadership for one year, including President Dr. M. Alem Qaher. Dr. A. Zia Aamoon (ziaaamoon2003@yahoo.com) will be responsible for international relations.

The Society's new leadership committee defined improvement of training programs as their top priority.

We look forward to welcoming the new Afghanistan Eye Doctors Society into the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS), for which the ICO is the executive body.

- Fritz Naumann, MD, ICO President

PAACO Becomes MACO: the Middle-East African Council of Ophthalmology

Bruce Spivey, MD

Like the previous supranational society Congresses in March in Santiago and Kuala Lumpur, the PAACO Congress featured an excellent scientific program and was well run and attended. It is wonderful to see our supranational societies coming of age, particularly as far as the quality of their meetings is concerned.

We know the same will be true at last supranational meeting this year: the 15th Congress of the European Society of Ophthalmology, a joint meeting with the 103rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Ophthalmology on September 25 - 29 in Berlin. For details, see www.soe2005.org.

- Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO Secretary General

Nigerian Society To Raise Funds for Residency Resource Centers

With $50,000 contributed by the ICO and $70,000 from the ICOFoundation (including $20,000 donated by Council Member Akef El Magraby, MD), the World Health Organization is purchasing the needed computers and services to provide broadband Internet connections for the six Resource Centers. The OSN will pay the monthly costs.

We recognize that the OSN has very limited resources and appreciate their commitment to raise the funds needed.

The Resource Centers are one of a number of initiatives for enhancing residency training for ophthalmologists in Nigeria that evolved from an ICO tour of residency programs and meetings with the OSN and the Minister of Health a year ago.

We hope that this pilot project in Nigeria will become a model and inspiration for initiatives to enhance residency training elsewhere around the world.

- Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO Secretary General

4. Deadlines for 2006 World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo

2006 World Ophthalmology Congress

Following are important deadlines and dates that you may want to note for the World Ophthalmology Congress, February 19 - 24, 2006 in São Paulo, Brazil:

• June 25th, 2005 - Best National Paper Report Due (see www.ophthalmology2006.com.br/best.php)
• July 29th, 2005 - Abstract Submission Deadline
• July 29th, 2005 - Advance Registration Deadline
• November 15th, 2005 - Last Day To Pre-register
• February 19th and 20th, 2006 - Pre-Congress Activities
• February 20th, 2006 - General Assembly of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies
• February 20th, 2006, 6:00 pm - Opening Ceremony
• February 24th, 2006 - Closing Ceremony
• February 25th, 2006 - Start of Carnival!

For more information, visit the Congress Web site at www.ophthalmology2006.com.br or send e-mail to: info@ophthalmology2006.com.br.

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

5. Aravind Offers Cataract Guide, VISION 2020 e-Resource and SiteNews

Hugh Taylor, MD

The site (www.laico.org/v2020resource/homepage.asp) supports implementation of the VISION 2020 initiative by offering tools to help assess, plan, implement and manage high quality, efficient, and sustainable eye care programs in the developing world.

Aravind also sends out a monthly e-mail newsletter called SiteNews that highlights resources on the "VISION 2020 e-Resource" site. You can read past issues at laico.org/v2020resource/site_news/news32005/pastissues.htm. Register for the Web site and to receive SiteNews at http://laico.org/v2020resource/member_registration_terms.asp.

- Hugh Taylor, MD, Acting ICO Advocacy Coordinator

6. ICOFoundation Board Adds Hilel Lewis, Paul Lichter and James Mazzo

Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD

The International Council of Ophthalmology Foundation (ICOFoundation) is honored to add Hilel Lewis, MD; Paul Lichter, MD; and James Mazzo to its Board of Directors.

Dr. Lewis is Professor and Chairman of the Division of Ophthalmology and Director of the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Dr. Lichter is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and Director of the W. K. Kellogg Eye Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

Mr. Mazzo is President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. in Santa Ana, California, USA.

Other members of the ICOFoundation Board are:

• Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD, President (Los Angeles, California, USA)
• Gottfried Naumann, MD, Vice President (Erlangen, Germany)
• Bruce Spivey, MD, Secretary-Treasurer (San Francisco, California, USA)
• Rubens Belfort, MD, PhD (São Paulo, Brazil)
• Neil Levine (New York, New York, USA)
• Akef El Maghraby, MD (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
• David Pyott (Irvine, California, USA)
• Timothy Sear (Fort Worth, Texas, USA)
• Paul Sieving, MD, PhD (Bethesda, Maryland, USA)
• Alfred Sommer, MD (Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
• Yasuo Tano, MD (Osaka, Japan)

The ICOFoundation was formed in 2002 to seek financial support for ICO initiatives to preserve and restore vision through education, quality eye care and research. For more information, see our Web site at: www.icofoundation.org.

- Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD, ICOFoundation President

7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings

• International Council of Ophthalmology: May 11, 2005, Florence, Italy
  
  
• General Assembly of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies: February 20, 2006, São Paulo, Brazil

Other Future Meetings: www.icoph.org/lead/icomeet.html.

8. Coming in the June ICO Leader Letter:

News from the May Council meeting in Florence

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

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

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