(For previous ICO Leader Letters, go to: www.icoph.org/news/letters.html.)
How can we help other doctors learn what they need to know about ophthalmology? Teaching ophthalmology to medical students is clearly the most direct and effective approach. To that end, the ICO formed an international task force some years ago that has defined a curriculum for ophthalmic education of medical students intended to be adapted for use in different countries and cultures. But former Task Force Chair Richard Parrish, MD, was not content with a curriculum. He recommended that we add lectures designed for medical students and images that would be useful in teaching to the ICO Web site, particularly for the benefit of students without access to printed ophthalmologic texts. Thanks to Rich's efforts and generous contributions from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Professor Susan Lightman, we now have some of the excellent materials for educating medical students on the ICO Web site at no charge, as described below. These may be useful for teaching other members of the eye care team as well. Please let other ophthalmologists who teach medical students know about these new resources: you may want to forward this Leader Letter to them. And let us know if you are aware of other free resources for educating medical students, particularly online, that are not mentioned below. - Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO President 2. Ophthalmology Should Be Part of Medical School Curriculum
The ICO's International Task Force on Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students strongly recommends that "all medical schools include ophthalmology as a part of the essential curriculum and not exclusively as an elective." This reflects previously adopted Council policy. The full text of the Task Force's "Principles and Guidelines of a Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students" is now on the ICO Web site (www.icoph.org/med), with hyperlinks to many of the lectures and images that are referenced, as described below. The Curriculum describes essential knowledge and skills for all medical students (www.icoph.org/med/principles.html), as well as basic, standard and advanced level knowledge and skills in 11 subspecialty areas (www.icoph.org/med/index.html#contents). The Curriculum reflects an international consensus, but is intended to be adapted as appropriate for use in different countries and cultures. While many ophthalmologists around the world contributed to the Curriculum, it is Richard Parrish, MD, former chair of ICO's Task Force on Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students, who did most of the work. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Parrish and all of the others who contribute to helping students learn about ophthalmology. - Mark Tso, MD, ICO Director of Education 3. Resources for Medical Student Education on ICO Web Site
The Academy has donated the images from its Ophthalmic Images Collection CD-ROM, Version 3 that are referenced in the ICO's "Principles and Guidelines of a Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students." In the version of Curriculum on the Web site (www.icoph.org/med), if medical students click on a hyperlinked reference to one of Academy images, they will see and be able to study that image. See www.icoph.org/med/resources.html#images for links to all of Academy images available, categorized by disease/subspecialty. Similarly, students can follow hyperlinks from references to lectures by Professor Lightman in the Curriculum to a page where they can download the relevant lecture, either in its original form, as a condensed PowerPoint, or as a PDF (for those with limited bandwidth or storage capacity). See www.icoph.org/med/resources.html#lightman for links to all the Lightman lectures available for download. The ICO deeply appreciates these contributions from the American Academy and Professor Lightman, and we hope this will be a useful resource for teaching medical students around the world. - Richard Parrish, MD, former Chair, ICO International Task Force on Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students 4. More Online Resources for Medical Students At the end of the ICO "Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students," there's a list of references to other useful resources for teaching medical students: www.icoph.org/med/references.html. Three other excellent resources are available on the Web at no charge:
You may also be interested the interactive case studies for medical students developed by Professor Jan Ygge at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm: courses.ki.se/utbildningsprogram/Lakare/termin9/D09HOF/startsida. Although the Web site is in Swedish, it's a great example of an innovative approach to teaching students. For more information, contact Professor Ygge at jan.ygge@ste.ki.se. - Richard Parrish, MD, former Chair, ICO International Task Force on Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students 5. Task Force Organizing Seminars on Teaching Students Under the new leadership of Professor Susan Lightman, the ICO International Task Force on Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students will organize seminars for ophthalmologists responsible for teaching students, including two symposia on education subspecialty day, June 28, 2008, during the World Ophthalmology Congress® in Hong Kong. The Task Force will encourage translation and adaptation of the ICO "Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students" in different countries. It is already being translated into Spanish, Turkish, Lebanese and Chinese, with Russian also a possibility. The Task Force is also planning to convert the text of the Curriculum into small booklets outlining core ophthalmic knowledge and skills, for program directors to distribute to medical students. If you have other suggestions for enhancing medical student education, please send them to us at education@icoph.org. - Mark Tso, MD, ICO Director for Education 6. SOE Celebrates 50th Anniversary in Vienna
More than 4000 ophthalmologists from 90 countries convened in Vienna in June for the 50th anniversary congress of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE), a joint congress with the American Academy of Ophthalmology in conjunction with Austrian Ophthalmological Society. Highlights included:
ICO and SOE officers met during the Congress to discuss how we can continue to work together, including possible areas for future collaboration. Electronic Posters from the meeting are now available on the Congress Web site at www.soe2007.org. The next SOE Congress will be 13 - 16 June, 2009 in Amsterdam (www.soe2009.org). We congratulate the SOE on an outstanding Congress and thank them for their warm hospitality. - Jean-Jacques De Laey, MD, ICO Secretary General 7. Next ICO and IFOS Meetings and World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC)
Other future ICO/IFOS Meetings: www.icoph.org/lead/icomeet.html. 8. Coming in the August ICO Leader Letter: 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. 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/leader0707.html. For previous issues, go to www.icoph.org/news/letters.html. Copyright © 2007 International Council of Ophthalmology. All rights reserved. |
