Home | News | About ICO | ICOFoundation | Contact

ICO Leader Letter

March 2011, Volume 8, Number 3

1. Sydney, OSCAR and the WOC

The ICO will be in Sydney, Australia this week for the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Congress, March 20-24. The ICO is a Congress co-sponsor and the host is The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO).

Almost 4,000 people involved in eye health and eye care from 67 countries will be in Sydney next week for what is likely to be one of the largest eye-health conferences held in Australia. It is not too late to register for this Congress, and you can find information here: www.apaosydney2011.com/Registration.htm.

If you will be at the APAO Congress, I hope you will attend some of the education and prevention of blindness sessions (described below in article 3) and visit the ICO at booth #516.

Also in this month’s Leader Letter we announce an exciting new tool to assess cataract surgical skill (article 4) and share with you World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC) news for 2012 (article 5).

– Bruce Spivey, MD, ICO President

2. ICO Golden Apple Awarded to Dennis Lam

The ICO 2011 Golden Apple Award for the Best Clinical Teacher in Ophthalmology in the Asia Pacific Region goes to Professor Dennis Lam of Hong Kong.

The ICO established the Golden Apple Award to honor the most dedicated teachers in clinical ophthalmology around the globe as a token of our commitment to ophthalmic educators.

Professor Lam has made substantial contributions to ophthalmic developments, particularly in training and education for the Asia Pacific region through his works in Hong Kong, China, and the APAO.

Professor Lam has established a medical relief program called Project Vision to address cataract blindness in China. And he has developed a program to train rural eye doctors who have little or no prior surgical experience, which has resulted in 19 charity eye centers in China and the training of 60 eye doctors with more than 60,000 cataract surgeries performed, among his many other contributions.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Lam on his outstanding achievements.

– Akef El-Maghraby, MD, ICO Vice President

3. International Ophthalmology and Education at APAO 2011

If you are planning to attend the APAO Congress next week in Sydney, I hope you will attend and participate in the ophthalmic education and prevention of blindness sessions. I list a few of the sessions here that may interest you:

Ophthalmic Education:

Monday, March 21

S1001 New Educational Approaches to Ophthalmic Teaching
09:00-10:30, Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1002 Emerging Innovative Technologies for Ophthalmic Education
11:00-12:30, Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1003 Pearls And Pitfalls in Teaching Ophthalmic Subspecialties
14:00-15:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1004 Changing Parameters of Resident and Medical Student Education in Ophthalmology
16:00-17:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1007 ICO Programs: WORD, Examinations and Fellowships
16:00-17:30 Bayside Gallery A, 200 theater

Tuesday, March 22

S1005 Challenges in The Development of Allied Health Profession: Infrastructure, Teaching, Certification and Challenges
0900-1030 Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1006 Challenges and Progress of Education Programs in the Asia-Pacific
16:00-17:30, Bayside 109, 112 theater

Prevention of Blindness:

Tuesday, March 22

S1401 Bridging the Gap in HRD
11:00-12:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1402 Diabetes in Developing Countries of Asia-Pacific
14:00-15:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

Wednesday, March 23

S1403 Achieving Sight for All
09:00-10:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

S1404 Reaching the Unreached
14:00-15:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

Thursday, March 24

S1406 Improving Quality of Life After Vision Loss
14:00-15:30 Bayside 109, 112 theater

If you would like more information on any of these or other Scientific Programs, you can view the final Sydney program at: www.apaosydney2011.com/Program.htm.

– Hugh Taylor, AC, MD, ICO Treasurer

4. ICO Announces New Surgical Assessment Tool: OSCAR

I am happy to announce a new surgical assessment tool: The ICO-Ophthalmology Surgical Competency Assessment Rubric (OSCAR). This is a significant new cataract surgery assessment tool developed by the ICO, with iterations covering additional surgical procedures also in development.

Globally applicable teaching and assessment tools for surgical skill have been desired but until now, did not exist. But ophthalmic educators want to know what is expected with regard to global standards, and residents need specific, structured, formative feedback. To address these needs, Drs. Karl Golnik, Hilary Beaver, Vinod Gauba, Andrew Lee, Eduardo Mayorga, Gabriela Palis and George Saleh came together to develop a standardized, internationally valid tool to both teach and assess an ophthalmologist’s competence in performing cataract surgery.

Unlike other surgical assessment tools, the ICO-OSCAR has succinct descriptions of the exact skill being evaluated for every rating category. This allows the assessor to be more objective in their grading and it provides the student with a teaching resource that specifies exactly what is expected.

Two ICO-OSCAR tools are now available for download:

• Extracapsular Cataract Extraction: www.icoph.org/downloads/ICO-OSCAR-ECCE.doc (DOC – 94 KB)
• Phacoemulsification: www.icoph.org/downloads/ICO-OSCAR-Phaco.doc (DOC – 86 KB)

The OSCAR is available on the ICO Web site in English and Spanish, with plans for translation to Mandarin, Portuguese and Vietnamese.  Please also see resources to download the OSCAR in English or Spanish.

– Mark O.M. Tso, MD, DSc, ICO Director for Education

5. Register Now for WOC 2012

I would like to invite you and your colleagues to participate in the World Ophthalmology Congress® 2012 (WOC 2012), February 16–20 in Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates.

Abu Dhabi has rapidly developed from a fishing village into a vibrant city with extraordinary buildings, shopping, top quality hotels, interesting museums, beautiful parks, and adventurous water and other sports.

This year is the first time such a prestigious international ophthalmology meeting will be hosted in the Middle East and Africa Region, and as your hosts, the Middle East Africa Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) is looking forward to welcoming you.

Early bird registration rates for WOC 2012 are available through July 30, 2011 at: www.woc2012.org/register_online.html.

The WOC 2012 Scientific Program Committee is now inviting abstract submissions at: www.woc2012.org/call_for_papers.html. Abstracts can be submitted for free papers, posters, videos or instruction courses, with a submission deadline of June 1, 2011.

We look forward to seeing you next year in Abu Dhabi.

– Abdulaziz AlRajhi, MD, WOC 2012 President

6. Next ICO Meetings and World Ophthalmology Congress

• ICO Board of Trustees: March 17–18, 2011, Sydney, Australia
• ICO General Assembly: February 16, 2012, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• World Ophthalmology Congress®: February 16–20, 2012, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (www.woc2012.org)

Upcoming ICO Meetings and World Ophthalmology Congresses

Conference for Ophthalmic Educators, Busan, Korea, April 12:
New Techniques to Enhance Teaching and Learning

• Register online to attend: icoph.org/rsvp/Busan

World Ophthalmology Congress Meetings

• WOC2014: Tokyo, Japan, April 2-6, 2014, www.woc2014.org
• WOC2016: Guadalajara, Mexico, February 5–9, 2016
• WOC2018: Barcelona, Spain (provisional selection, dates to be announced)

More News

For more news of the ICO and international ophthalmology and resources for ophthalmologic leaders, see the ICO Web site at www.icoph.org.

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 ophthalmologic leaders? Please let us know at leader@icoph.org.

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

Send comments and suggestions for the Leader Letter to leader@icoph.org.

Archive. You can read this newsletter and previous ICO Leader Letters online at: 
www.icoph.org/news/leader_letter

Privacy. We do not share e-mail addresses with anyone else. Check our privacy policy at:
 www.icoph.org/privacy_policy.html

Subscribe. To subscribe to the ICO Leader Letter, visit: www.icoph.org/news/leader_letter