Preservation and Restoration of Vision:

Global Ophthalmology and the Global Initiative

By Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Member, International Council of Ophthalmology

Commitment to protecting vision and preventing blindness stands at a critical juncture. The World Health Organization, in partnership with 20 voluntary, professional and governmental agencies, has launched the Global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

We in the ophthalmic community are challenged to identify our role and demonstrate our commitment to a goal that is, after all, our raison d'etre.

While all ophthalmic diseases are important, poorer developing countries deserve special attention as they contain fully 90% of the cases of blindness for which solutions already exist.

Three of the four major causes of readily avoidable blindness -- vitamin A deficiency/measles, trachoma and river blindness -- will largely be solved by public health approaches benefitting from ophthalmic guidance.

The single largest cause of blindness, cataract, will only respond to our unique surgical skills. Our challenge is to organize our profession's global resources so as to make those skills available to all who can benefit from them.

Given low quality surgical outcomes in some countries, and inefficiencies and shortages of surgical staff in others, our unique contribution may lie in expanding training and educational opportunities, combined with the development of innovative, cost-effective and efficient approaches to delivering cataract surgical services in resource-constrained communities.

To meet this challenge, we must find new ways to mobilize, coordinate and harness the rich technical resources of our profession. "International ophthalmology" can no longer rely on the casual nature of our existing confederation of national societies meeting once every 4 years for learned discourse and social interaction.

The "global village" spurred the "Global Initiative." The Global Initiative deserves a more vigorous response from global ophthalmology than we and our organizations have been prepared to provide in the past. The International Council of Ophthalmology is actively engaged in pursuing new directions and identifying innovative responses to meet these challenges.

Next: Vision for the Future

Also see: Table of Contents for Vision for the Future