ICO Leader Letter:
Making Prevention of Blindness a Priority

March 2006, Volume 3, Number 3

In This Issue:

1. Thanks to Drs. Naumann, Gloor, Tso, Et. Al. (Bruce Spivey, MD)

2. ICO Calls for Increased Support for Prevention of Blindness (Hugh Taylor, MD)

3. Council Asks Societies To Promote WHO Resolution (Nag Rao, MD)

4. World Congress Exceeds Expectations (Bruce Spivey, MD)

5. Council Elects Drs. El Maghraby, DeLaey and Tano (Fritz Naumann, MD)

6. Council Approves Ethical Code, New IFOS Members (Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD)

7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings

8. Coming in the April 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

1. Thanks to Drs. Naumann, Gloor, Tso, Et. Al.

Bruce Spivey, MD

"We stand on the shoulders of our predecessors."

Fritz Naumann, MD, used those words several times during the recent World Ophthalmology Congress/XXX World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo to emphasize the debt that the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) owes to those who have led it in the past.

As the new President of the Council, I want to express my appreciation to Fritz, to the other officers and to all other members of the Council and its Advisory Committee who have contributed so much in recent years to help the ICO grow and make real progress on achieving its goals. For some perspective on what the ICO accomplished during Fritz's eight years as President, see his President's report at www.icoph.org/ic/presreport.html.

At the end of the Council meeting in São Paulo, we honored outgoing President Naumann by establishing the "G.O.H. Naumann Award for Leadership in Global Eye Care." For details, see www.icoph.org/ic/naumannaward.html.

We also recognized and thanked Balder Gloor, MD, for his contributions to the Council, International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS) and international ophthalmology. Balder served with distinction as ICO Treasurer for 12 years, in addition to creating and directing the ICO Fellowship program (www.icoph.org/fellow).

And we thanked Mark Tso, MD, for his eight years of dedicated service both as ICO Vice President and ICO Director of Education. Mark will continue on the Council as Director of Education.

Sincere appreciation also to the other retiring members of the Council, who provided strong shoulders for the new Council to stand on:

• Adenike Abiose, MD
• Rafael Cortez, MD
• August Deutman, MD
• Peter Hardy Smith, MD
• Paul Lichter, MD
• Frank Martin, MD
• Pran Nagpal, MD
• Koichi Shimizu, MD.

See below for more highlights of the ICO meeting and World Congress.

- Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO President

2. ICO Calls for Increased Support for Prevention of Blindness

Hugh Taylor, MD

At its meeting on February 19 during the World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo, the ICO renewed its commitment to help make prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment a higher priority worldwide.

The Council is asking national ophthalmologic societies and others to generate support for adoption of a WHO resolution that calls for increasing support for prevention of blindness initiatives, both within countries and internationally.

The Council voted:

To actively encourage and support all efforts to have Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment recognized as a priority area, duly included into national health policies and development plans.

Two days later, the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS), the parent body of the ICO, adopted the same policy.

- Hugh Taylor, MD, ICO Advocacy Director

3. Council Asks Societies To Promote WHO Resolution

Nag Rao, MD

The Council is asking national societies and other ophthalmologic leaders to contact your ministers of health and other members of national delegations to the WHA and urge them to support Resolution EB117.R4 at the Assembly in May.

Adopted by the WHO Executive Board on January 26, the resolution on "Prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment" asks WHA Member States (i.e., countries) to:

• reinforce efforts to define national VISION 2020 plans
• provide funding necessary to support those plans
• include prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in national development plans and goals.

The resolution asks WHO to:

• give priority to prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment
• provide necessary technical support to member states and support for collaboration among countries
• monitor progress on the global initiative and report to the Executive Board every three years.

You can download the resolution from www.icoph.org/pdf/WHOresolutionEB117R4.pdf.

Active support from ophthalmologic societies and individual ophthalmologists for adoption of the resolution could be critical to increasing the resources allocated to prevention of blindness around the world.

- Nag Rao, MD, Council Member and President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)

4. World Congress Exceeds Expectations

2006 World Ophthalmology Congress

The World Ophthalmology Congress on February 19 - 24 in São Paulo, Brazil exceeded all expectations, with more than 12,000 registrants from 120 countries.

Highlights included:

• the first-ever World Forum of Non-Profit Organizations on Vision and Prevention of Blindness
• four "Subspecialty Days," one-day immersion programs led by top ophthalmologists on glaucoma, retina, cataract and cornea and refractive surgery
• 2,500 speakers from all ophthalmic subspecialties and all regions of the world
• 400 scientific sessions with 4000 presentations
• Opening Ceremonies, a WOCarnival Ball and other social events that introduced registrants to the music and flavors of Brazil.

On behalf of the ICO, I want to express great thanks and appreciation to Congress President Rubens Belfort, MD, and his marvelous team for organizing what was clearly, as Dr. Naumann said, the best World Ophthalmology Congress since 1857, when the first Congress was held in Brussels.

- Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO President

5. Council Elects Drs. El Maghraby, DeLaey and Tano

Fritz Naumann, MD

At its meeting in São Paulo, the International Council of Ophthalmology elected the following new officers:

• Vice President: Akef El Maghraby, MD, of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• Secretary General: Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, of Ghent, Belgium
• Treasurer: Yasuo Tano, MD, of Osaka, Japan.

They will serve for four years, until the end of the 2010 World Ophthalmology Congress, with Bruce Spivey, MD, of San Francisco, USA, who was previously elected ICO President.

The Council nominated and IFOS elected the following new members of the ICO:

• Viet-Peter Gabel, MD, of Regensburg, Germany to serve as Fellowship Director
• Tero Kivela, MD, of Helsinki, Finland to serve as Standards Director
• Enrique Graue, MD, of Mexico City, Mexico
• Stephen Ryan, MD, Los Angeles, United States
• Grace Saguti, MD, of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa
• Abhay Vasavada, MBBS, Ahmedabad, India
• Ji-liang Zhao, MD, Beijing, China.

Peter Watson, FRCS, FRCOphth, was elected President of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis in São Paulo and will represent the AOI on the Council.

Abdulaziz AlRajhi, MD, of Saudi Arabia, will represent the Middle East African Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO). The representative of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology is still to be named.

Other Council members for 2006 - 2010 will remain the same. See the full list at: www.icoph.org/ic/iccoun.html.

- Fritz Naumann, MD, ICO Immediate Past President

6. Council Approves Ethical Code, New IFOS Members

At its meeting in São Paulo, the ICO also:

• approved an "Ethical Code for Ophthalmologists"
  
  
• adopted a final report on "Vision Requirements for Driving Safety"
  
  
• approved 17 subspecialty societies and related groups as new members of IFOS
  
  
• discussed the completion and dissemination of ICO curriculum guidelines for residency training, medical student education in ophthalmology, allied eye care personnel and continuing medical education of ophthalmologists
  
  
• considered updates on the ICO Fellowship, Basic and Clinical Assessments and International Clinical Guidelines
  
  
• reviewed new data developed by the Committee on Countries With Minimal Ophthalmic Presence and discussed options for improving ophthalmic education in those countries
  
  
• heard progress reports from the WHO, IAPB and the VISION 2020 global initiative
  
  
• discussed progress on ICO-stimulated initiatives to enhance residency training in Nigeria and courses for residency program directors.

For more details on the Council meeting, IFOS General Assembly and other events in São Paulo, see the ICO Web site at www.icoph.org.

- Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, ICO Secretary General

7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings

• International Council of Ophthalmology: March 23, 2007, Cape Town, South Africa
  
  
• IFOS General Assembly: during the World Ophthalmology Congress, June 29 - July 3, 2008 in Hong Kong

Other future ICO/IFOS Meetings: www.icoph.org/lead/icomeet.html.

8. Coming in the April ICO Leader Letter:

Ethics and Driving Safety

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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