by Dr Ben Smith, General Duties Medical Officer (Army), Tidworth, UK.
This annual national meeting of tri-service defence ophthalmologists was held in the beautiful and historic setting of Merton College in Oxford, hosted by Professor Robert MacLaren, the current Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a member of the Army Reserve.
Defence ophthalmology is a small and close-knit community, reflected by a total delegate number of around 20 people including consultant and trainee defence ophthalmogists, aspirant defence ophthalmologists and colleagues from the Army ENT cadre as well as Brigadier Tony Finn who was the guest of honour. The first day began with a brief but fascinating update on the defence ophthalmology cadre and the direction in which it is heading. Following this, there were lectures on humanitarian ophthalmology in Africa as well as the ground-breaking research of Prof MacLaren on the development of ‘Bionic Eyes’ in retinal blindness. During the evening, the cadre were treated to a fantastic mess dinner in Merton College, steeped in medical history – William Harvey is in fact a Mertonian! This was a great opportunity for networking and informal discussion.
The second day the trainees and aspirant ophthalmologists compete in oral presentations of their research across a wide range of topics, such as: treatments to prevent PVR in open globe injury; antibiotic prophylaxis and eye removal after open globe injury; imaging of open globe injuries; timing of primary repair in open globe injury; OCTA analysis methods and the approach to non-sealing full-thickness traumatic corneal wounds. This was a hard-fought contest and judged by Professor MacLaren himself. The second day was finished with updates relating to aviation medicine, NATO ophthalmology initiatives and the cadre’s contribution to military operational surgical teams and deployed emergency physicians. This conference continues to develop and I look forward to 2025.
