Ophthalmic Education:

Resources for Enhancing Training To Meet Public Needs for Eye Care

On this page:

• ICO asks societies to enhance training
  
  
• PowerPoint presentations available for download
  
  
• Curricula for ophthalmic education
  
  
• Curriculum for residency training in Spanish
  
  
• Minimal standards for residency training in Latin America
  
  
• VISION 2020 training directory and workshops
  
  
• VISION 2020 report on public need for eye care
  
  
• WHA calls for increased support for training
  
  
• Pilot project on improving residency education in Nigeria
  
  
• Zeiss supports development of training centers
  
  
• Lilly Grant to ICOFoundation for Diabetic Eye Center
  
  
• ICO courses for residency program directors

Also see:

• More Resources for Improving Training
  
  
• ICO Asks IFOS Members To Enhance Training

ICO asks societies to enhance training

This page and a second page contain information about and links to resources available to help enhance the training of ophthalmolmologists and others to meet the needs of the public for eye care.

The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) has asked members of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS) to join in an initiative to enhance training of ophthalmologists and other eye care personnel.

Hugh Taylor, MD, ICO Director for Advocacy, has asked each IFOS Representative to arrange to deliver an ICO presentation on enhancing training during a plenary session at their next society congress.

PowerPoint presentations available for download

There are three alternative PowerPoint presentations on "A Critical Challenge for Ophthalmology: Enhancing Training To Meet the Public Need for Eye Care" that can be downloaded:

• one with 37 slides (352 KB)
• one with 26 slides (180 KB), and
• one with 15 slides (112 KB).

Each presentation outlines the public need for eye care, issues related to training and resources available to help, as well as providing background information on the ICO/IFOS.

The longer presentations suggest principles for training of eye care providers and have more detail on relevant ICO programs and other resources.

Curricula for ophthalmic education

Four sets of curricula and guidelines for ophthalmic education defined by ICO international task forces have recently been revised under the leadership of ICO Director for Education Mark Tso, MD.

PDFs of the most recent versions of the curricula can be downloaded as follows:

• residency training in ophthalmology (www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricres.pdf - 312 KB)
  
  
• education of allied eye care providers
  (www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricpara.pdf - 336 KB)
  
  
• ophthalmic education of medical students (www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricmed.pdf - 204 KB)
  
  
• guidelines for continuing medical education in ophthalmology (www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurriccme.pdf - 220 KB).

The ICO encourages ophthalmologic societies and residency programs to translate and adapt these curricula as needed and use them as a basis for enhancing ophthalmic education.

Curriculum for residency training in Spanish

The curriculum guidelines for ophthalmology residency training are also available in Spanish, from www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricressp.pdf (220 KB).

They were translated by Council Member Enrique Graue, MD, who is also President of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology.

Minimal standards for residency training in Latin America

The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology (PAAO) and Pan-American Council of University Professors in Ophthalmology have defined minimum standards for residency training in Latin America.

"Requisitos Mínimos para una Residencia en Oftalmología" can be downloaded from the PAAO Web site:

• as a PDF file: www.paao.org/pdf/reqminres.pdf (36 KB) or
  
  
• as a Word (.doc) file: www.paao.org/doc/reqminres.doc (68 KB).

VISION 2020 training directory and workshops

VISION 2020 is a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020.

Launched in 1999 and led by International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and World Health Organization (WHO), VISION 2020 has three core strategies:

• Disease control
• Infrastructure development
• Human resources development

The definition of VISION 2020 implementation plans at regional, national and provincial/district levels offers an excellent opportunity for ophthalmologic societies to get involved and advocate for greater support for training eye care providers to meet public needs.

The IAPB/VISION 2020 global training directory (PDF - 167 KB) and 2006 VISION 2020 workshops programs (PDF - 124 KB) can be downloaded from www.v2020.org/page.asp?section=000100010014.

VISION 2020 report on public need for eye care

In 2005, VISION 2020 issued a report on the "State of the World's Sight" that includes the latest WHO statistics on the diseases and conditions that lead to visual loss and blindness, which reflects the public need for eye care.

You can download the Executive Summary (1 MB) or complete "State of the World's Sight" report (1.3 MB) from www.v2020.org/page.asp?section=000100010015.

WHA calls for increased support for training

Pilot project on improving residency education in Nigeria

In the spring of 2004, the ICO initiated a pilot project to assess what might be done to enhance residency training in a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Members of the Council and leaders of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria (OSN) toured residency programs in Nigeria and met with the Minister of Health. That led to definition of short-, medium- and long-term action to be taken to strengthen residency training.

Since then:

• Six new residency resource centers have been established, with computers and other hardware in place and Internet access to be added soon
  
  
• OSN has defined a “Vision for the Future – Nigeria” (PDF - 472 KB), established committees to focus on the priorities defined in it and created an OSN Foundation (PDF- 72 KB)
  
  
• OSN is “twinning” with the All India Ophthalmologic Society, and members are attending other international Congresses, including 24 at the 2006 World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo
  
  
• OSN is working with the Aravind Eye Hospital to build a high-quality, high-volume training center in Ibadan, supported by a grant from Carl Zeiss
  
  
• OSN is working with the U.S. National Eye Institute to develop a mechanism for evaluating the impact of these initiatives on patient care in Nigeria.

Zeiss supports development of training centers

The VISION 2020 Human Resource Working Group (HRWG) has been asked to take responsibility for the development of “IAPB – Carl Zeiss Training Centers.”

Zeiss is donating $200,000 per year for five years to support the development of five training centers in different regions of the world. The first center (2005) is being developed in Indonesia, the second (2006) in Nigeria, and the third (2007) will be in Eastern Africa. The locations for the fourth and fifth centers are still to be determined.

Gullapolli (Nag) Rao, MD, President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), said VISION 2020/IAPB is hoping to convince other industry leaders to make similar commitments.

Lilly Grant to ICOFoundation for Diabetic Eye Center

The Eli Lilly and Company Foundation has given the International Council of Ophthalmology Foundation (ICOFoundation) an award of $150,000 to establish a model Eli Lilly Diabetic Eye Disease Center in partnership with the ICO.

The diabetic center will be established in a place of major need in the developing world.

"With the prevalence of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy destined to increase, establishment of a diabetic eye disease center is a major breakthrough in establishing medically coordinated, high quality, accessible and sustainable eye care," said ICOFoundation President Bradley R. Straatsma, MD, JD."We appreciate the support of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation for this essential first step."

ICO courses for residency program directors

The ICO is sponsoring three regional courses for ophthalmology residency program directors in 2006 and 2007:

• March 23 – 24, 2006 in Lima, Peru for residency directors from Peru, Bolivia and other nearby countries
• June 15 – 16, 2006 in Cairo for directors from Egypt and neighboring countries
• July 2007 in Buenos Aires, for residency directors from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

All courses are organized in cooperation with national and supranational ophthalmologic societies, with support from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and U.S. Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology.

Topics covered include curriculum development, teaching in outpatient areas, surgical instruction and assessment of residents’ knowledge and skills. For example, see the program from the course for residency program directors in Cairo (PDF - 256 KB).

Next: More Resources for Improving Training

Also see: ICO Asks IFOS Members To Enhance Training