(For previous issues of the ICO Leader Letter, go to: www.icoph.org/news/letters.html.)
As ICO Advocacy Director Hugh Taylor, MD, reports below, if other national societies and individual ophthalmologists will contact your ministers now, it could make a critical contribution to increasing support for prevention of blindness and visual impairment in your countries and around the world. This issue of the ICO Leader Letter also highlights new ICO curricula for ophthalmic education, a code of ethics for ophthalmologists and report on vision requirements for driving safety. We hope you will download these documents and adapt them for use in your societies and training programs. Any feedback you can offer will be much appreciated. - Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO President 2. Comments Requested on Draft Curricula by May 15
We would appreciate comments from ophthalmologic leaders on new curricula and guidelines for ophthalmic education drafted by ICO international task forces:
The new curricula were first presented to the Council when it met in February during the World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo. We are seeking additional input from the ophthalmic community until May 15, when we will revise and edit these draft curricula for publication. Please send comments to me at education@icoph.org. Also available are newly revised versions of curriculum guidelines for:
Definition of model curricula for ophthalmic education was one of the top priorities defined in the Vision for the Future strategic plan for international ophthalmology adopted in 2001 (www.icoph.org/prev/plan.html). The ICO encourages ophthalmologic societies and residency programs to adapt these curricula as needed and use them as basis for enhancing ophthalmic education. Thank you in advance for your comments. - Mark Tso, MD, ICO Education Director 3. Please Promote Adoption of WHO Resolution
The ICO has asked all national societies to contact their health ministers and other members of their delegation to the WHA as soon as possible and ask them to support the resolution, which calls for increasing support for prevention of blindness and visual loss around the world. At www.icoph.org/wha, you can download:
Most of this information was developed by International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IABC), which is spearheading support for the WHO resolution. I would also encourage other ophthalmologists, including chairmen of ophthalmology departments, to contact your minister of health and ask them to support the WHO resolution. Active support for adoption of the resolution from ophthalmologic societies and individual ophthalmologists could be critical to increasing the resources allocated to prevention of blindness around the world. So please contact your ministers as soon as possible. - Hugh Taylor, MD, ICO Advocacy Director 4. Council Adopts Ethical Code for Ophthalmologists
At its meeting in São Paulo in February, the Council adopted a code of ethics developed by the ICO Ethics Committee and recommended by the Advisory Committee to the ICO. Titled "An Ethical Code for Ophthalmologists: Ethical Principles and Professional Standards," the code defines moral principles and standards to guide the behavior of ophthalmologists related to:
The Ethical Code was developed over the course of two years with guidance from professional ethicists. The core-Code is intended to be general and include principles, not regulations. But it could be used as a basis for defining more specific codes of ethics for ophthalmologists in individual countries. It is available on the ICO Web site at www.icoph.org/ethics and can be downloaded as a PDF file from www.icoph.org/pdf/icoethicalcode.pdf (164KB). Comments are welcome. - Pinar Aydin, MD, PhD, Chair, ICO Ethics Committee and Member, Advisory Committee to the ICO 5. ICO Report on Vision for Driving Safety
Also in São Paulo, the Council approved a report on "Vision Requirements for Driving Safety" prepared by ICO Committee on Standards Member August Colenbrander, MD, and myself. The report recognizes the profound impact vision requirements for driving have and the need to make them more uniform around the world. It evaluates:
The report concludes that vision requirements should be considered in relation to other factors that may affect driving safety. They define a safety margin between performance in the office and performance on the road under adverse conditions. A compromise may have to be found between ideal testing and economic feasibility. The report can be downloaded from www.icoph.org/pdf/visionfordriving.pdf. - Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, ICO Secretary General and Past ICO Standards Director 6. Dates Changed for 2008 World Congress in Hong Kong 
The dates for the next World Ophthalmology Congress, the XXXI International Congress of Ophthalmology, have been changed. It will be June 28 - July 2, 2008 in Hong Kong, starting a day earlier than previously announced. The Congress will be held in conjunction with the XX Hong Kong Ophthalmological Symposium and the XII Chinese Ophthalmological Symposium. This will be the first time that the Chinese Ophthalmological Society meets in Hong Kong. Registration and abstract submission will open in December. For more, see the Congress Web site at www.woc2008hongkong.org. The 2010 World Ophthalmology Congress and XXXII International Congress of Ophthalmology will be June 6 - 10, 2010 in Berlin, in conjunction with the 108th Congress of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG). There is a preliminary Web site for that Congress at www.woc2010.de. Chicago will be the site of the 2012 World Ophthalmology Congress/XXXIII International Congress of Ophthalmology, a joint meeting with the American Academy of Ophthalmology on November 10 - 13, 2012. - Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, ICO Secretary General 7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings
Other future ICO/IFOS Meetings: www.icoph.org/lead/icomeet.html. 8. Coming in the May ICO Leader Letter: Input Requested for ICO Strategic Planning 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, you can forward this issue to them by clicking on this link. 12. Comments, Change of Address, Privacy Policy, Subscribe and Unsubscribe Send comments and suggestions for the Leader Letter to leader@icoph.org. You are subscribed as [contact-Email]. Change your address by sending e-mail to: leader@icoph.org. We do not share e-mail addresses with anyone else. Check our privacy policy at: www.icoph.org/ic/privacy.html. To subscribe to the Leader Letter, visit www.icoph.org/news/subscribe.html. To unsubscribe, reply to this e-mail and type "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) as the subject, click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page, or send an e-mail to leader@icoph.org. You can read this ICO Leader Letter online at www.icoph.org/news/leader0604.html. For previous issues, go to www.icoph.org/news/letters.html. Copyright © 2006 International Council of Ophthalmology. All rights reserved.  International Council of OphthalmologyHome | News | About ICO/IFOS | ICOFoundation | Contact | Find |
