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Diabetic retinopathy screening in Belize: a country’s journey towards reducing blindness from DR

The rise of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its complications is a public health concern in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Programme, managed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and funded by the Queen Elizabeth...

Broadening of treatment options for potentially blinding retinal conditions

Rod McNeil provides an update on a promising bispecific antibody recently approved for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DMO) and considers emerging developments in biosimilars to established anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies, including...

Emerging therapies for geographic atrophy: complement inhibitors show potential to slow progression and preserve RPE and photoreceptor integrity

Geographic atrophy (GA) is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) characterised by progressive, irreversible loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptors and is estimated to account for approximately 10% of AMD-related blindness [1-4]. The Age-Related Eye...

Coming to terms with AI

A machine might be called intelligent if its response to questions could convince a person that it was human, a test proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 [1]. The author considers potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning...

Designing ophthalmology services - Part 1: How do we address the queues in a clinic?

This first of a three-part series shows how systems engineering can be used to correctly diagnose and address the causes of delays in a clinic. The second article, which will be featured in the April/May 2020 issue, describes how to...

Pathological myopia: a trainer’s perceptive

High myopia is defined as myopic refraction of greater than -6 dioptres with an axial length greater than 26.5mm, while pathological myopia is myopic refraction with posterior pole degeneration [1]. These degenerative changes can affect a young population and in...

6.6.2020 – a celebration of international partnerships

The date 6.6.2020 was selected as a significant milestone for celebrating the achievements of the VISION LINKS Programme as part of the global ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ initiative [1]. This virtual full-day seminar included LINK partners in the...

My Top Five: Foundation year 3 jobs for prospective ophthalmology candidates

Ophthalmology specialist training (OST) is a fantastic career option, however, it is also a highly competitive specialty. There was a gradual rise in competition ratios in recent years: 3.24 (2019), 5.73 (2020), and 6.80 (2021) [1]. Many choose to pursue...

Ocular manifestations of multiple sclerosis: an overview

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), in which there is dissemination of lesions in time (two or more clinical events) and space (multiple lesions seen on brain and spinal imaging). The pathophysiology...

FAQs about cerebral visual impairment (CVI): identifying and helping those affected

Cerebral visual impairment is common in both adults and children, yet the diagnosis can easily be missed unless one is tuned into the presenting features. This article provides a succinct introduction to this important topic. What is vision? Vision is...