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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...

Building leaders for eye care in Africa: the COECSA-RCOphth VISION 2020 LINK

The VISION 2020 LINK [1] between the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has been building leaders of eye care in Africa since 2008, when a Memorandum of Understanding...

Working smarter not harder: How to transform eyecare delivery in the United Kingdom (part 2)

Are we doing enough to meet the current demands on ophthalmic services? In part two of a two-part series (see Part 1 here), Rosalind Harrison explains how efficiency can be improved by setting up eye services in community hubs. The...

The ROP Network: a south-south collaboration to improve care for premature babies

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a disorder of the immature preterm retina and a leading cause of preventable, irreversible blindness in children. There are 15 million preterm births annually, and over 32,000 neonates became blind from ROP in 2010 [1]....

Corneal transplantation in the United Kingdom: are we blind to the challenges that still exist after the Organ Donation Bill?

Corneal transplantation (CT) is a significant treatment option for a huge number of patients in the United Kingdom (UK) [1]. For an individual, CT results in a substantial improvement in quality of life. Penetrating keratoplasty with full thickness grafting has...

The Real Top Gun: Professor Steve Schallhorn

Steve Schallhorn: Fighter Pilot. In the spring of 1987, I travelled to the cinema at Hendon Central in London with some school friends to watch the newly released movie The Witches of Eastwick starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. Unfortunately...

Infection prevention and control through a VISION 2020 LINK between Mombasa and Southampton

The authors share how a partnership between Mombasa and Southampton has enabled Kenyan healthcare professionals from four institutions to innovate and work as a group to improve infection prevention and control. Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a cornerstone of...

The Makassar-Dundee VISION 2020 LINK: a tale of two cities and two trainees

A resident’s view from Makassar My name is Hendra Kusuma, a final year resident (registrar) in the ophthalmology department at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, Indonesia. We have had a VISION 2020 LINK with Dundee (coordinated at the UK end by...

The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme: Cascading leadership training in Calabar, Nigeria

The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme has initiated ‘LEAD FORWARD’, an innovative leadership development project incorporating a commitment to cascade training and participate in achievable quality or service improvement projects. The project provides opportunities to apply leadership skills in practice as...

The history of ophthalmology: John Argyll Robertson and Douglas Moray Cooper Lamb Argyll Robertson

The author shares the story of an extraordinary father and son, two of the major figures in defining the specialty of ophthalmology as we know it today. The renowned Glasgow Surgeon Peter Lowe described ophthalmic surgery in his legendary surgical...

Clinical and management strategies in glaucoma practice: perspectives from international glaucoma specialists

Management options and outcomes in glaucoma practice were reviewed at the 7th Moorfields International Glaucoma Symposium, held in London on 24 January 2015. This article summarises perspectives from international glaucoma specialists on debated issues in topical therapy, glaucoma surgery, diagnostic...