World Association Of Eye Hospitals – Newsletter 2020 – February
Aravind Eye Hospital
Certificate Course on
Maintenance of Ophthalmic Instruments and Equipment
6 batches a year – Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct & Dec
at Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai
At any point of time,
- Around the world, more than 50% of medical equipment in developing countries are in a state that cannot be used
- Tie-up with Maintenance agencies or Product Service teams is not feasible on a daily-basis
- No skilled technicians are available to train the maintenance personnel and users
- The solution could be training your own personnel to ensure services are not affected due to minor problems.
* This course offers an opportunity for your hospital personnel to get trained in equipment care, preventive maintenance and innovating as well.
Course highlights
- Live examples of problem-solving
- Hands-on training
- 1:1 ratio of trainer-trainee
- Certification at the end of training
- A set of tools given at the end of training
New York
NYEE Celebrates 200 Years honoring their Past. Envisioning their Future.
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) proudly celebrates its 200-year anniversary as America’s first specialty hospital founded in 1820. Originally established as a charitable institution to provide care for New York City’s poor with diseases of the eyes, ears, nose, and throat, the Infirmary quickly grew its reputation as one of the leading centers for innovative clinical care, patient research, and medical education.
By 1918, NYEE had already treated over one million patients and established leading residency programs in ophthalmology and otolaryngology (ENT).
Today, NYEE remains at the forefront for innovative surgical specialty services. The institution serves as the clinical site for breakthrough translational research—introducing many novel diagnostic and surgical techniques—with a growing network of satellite practices across the New York metropolitan area. As NYEE looks forward to its third century of specialty care, the Infirmary remains committed to its founding mission of serving the community, as well as patients nationally and internationally.
Read more about the 200 year celebrations: https://www.nyee.edu/200years
How to apply eye drops
‘An important task for pharmacists is to give instructions on how to correctly apply drops’
Because many eye patients do not apply their drops correctly, they have a lot of difficulty with their treatment. They experience serious side effects and sometimes end up in hospital. Caregivers at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital emphasise that correct instructions for applying drops are therefore crucial. “The pharmacist has an important role to play in that.”
The hospital developed a website, with an instructional video and app that helps people to apply their drops in a timely and correct manner and provides information about resources. A patient brochure was also introduced. Ooms and Scheltens were also involved in drawing up a Flemish-Dutch protocol from the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH, www. Waeh.org) to ensure consensus about eye drops both in the hospital and home care.
Read more here: https://www.waeh.org/news/how-to-apply-eye-drops-2/
Jakarta Eye Centre board member of the WAEH
Per March 1, 2020 dr Tjahjono will represent the Jakarta Eye Centre in the board of the WAEH. For more information about the Jakarta Eye Centre: https://jec.co.id/en
This autumn St. Erik Eye Hospital is relocating to Hagastaden
In September 2020 St. Erik Eye Hospital will be relocating from Kungsholmen to Hagastaden in Stockholm. Moving into the rapidly growing life science cluster in Hagastaden will offer greater opportunities for providing eye patients with the best eye care in Sweden.
Read more info here: https://www.sankterik.se/en/news/2020/this-autumn-st-erik-eye-hospital-is-relocating-to-
How our Visual Rehabilitation Specialist enables visually impaired Palestinians to adjust to life without sight
At St John Eye Hospital our aim is to tackle preventable blindness across Palestine. But some conditions are simply irreversible or untreatable. Unfortunately, those living with untreatable visual impairment in Palestine have often been left with zero support for living their life without sight – making their condition even more psychologically distressing and robbing them of their independence.
We have recently introduced a dedicated Low Vision Therapy unit to help such patients adapt to life without sight by giving them the tools and confidence to navigate this different way of living.
Read more about the Low Vision Therapy here: https://www.stjohneyehospital.org/news
Annual Day Celebration of Aravind Eye Hospital, Tirunelveli
Aravind-Tirunelveli celebrated the completion of 32 years of service. Dr K Pitchumani, Vice Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University was the chief guest. Doctors from various specialities in and around Tirunelveli, Rotary and Lions Club members, well wishers of Aravind attended the event.
The function started with prayer song by Dr Priyanka Shyam and Dr Kriti, followed by Dr.R. Meenakshi, Chief Medical Officer welcoming the gathering. Dr. Neelam Pawar, Senior Medical Officer presented a report on the activities of the past year. Dr R Ramakrishnan, Advisor gave a very inspiring speech. Dr K Pitchumani,also gave an informative talk and congratulated the staff for their selfless service. Service awards and certificates were distributed to the staff members.
See more about the celebration here: https://aravind.org/news/annual-day-tvl/
Date: 8 February 2020
When do you need an eye exam? Five signs it’s time
How often should you get your eyes checked? Ask your eye doctor.
The American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends annual eye exams, but the best person to ask is the optometrist or ophthalmologist who examines your eyes regularly. If you don’t get an eye exam every year, your eyes will usually tell you when they need help.
If you find yourself rubbing your eyes a lot or holding things as far from (or as close to) your face as possible to see them clearly, it’s probably time to see your eye doctor.
Losing the ability to focus on the fine print happens to the best of us. Presbyopia occurs with age, as the lens inside the eye loses flexibility. But it’s also possible you have latent vision issues that are getting worse.
Read more here: http://cteyehospital.com/when-do-you-need-an-eye-exam-5-signs-its-time/
Date: 11 February 2020
Vision for Baltimore,
Johns Hopkins collaboration provides eye screening for city school students
How does a horse see? What about a fish?
These were some of the questions asked of and by students attending the World Sight Day vision fair at Baltimore’s Henderson-Hopkins School on Oct. 10. The fair was staffed by a volunteer team of Johns Hopkins research assistants, students and post-doctoral fellows from the Wilmer Eye Institute and the schools of education, medicine and public health, along with volunteers from the Vision for Baltimore program, which hosted the event.
Read the full article here: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/vision-for-baltimore
Want to know more about Wilmer?
Read the 2019 Annual Report from Wilmer Eye Institute:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/publications/wilmer_issues/annual-report-2019
Ready…Set…Launch
Teams of Wilmer faculty entrepreneurs, intent on turning their discoveries into new treatments for patients, have created 13 new companies–and more are in development.
Read more here:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/ready-set-launch
The husband and wife who fell in love on Orbis’s Flying Eye Hospital
It’s no secret that the Flying Eye Hospital has changed thousands of lives through its sight-saving work. However, the relationships forged between the Orbis crew members and local eye-health professionals can also have a profound effect on their own lives, both professionally and personally.
After receiving training on board the Flying Eye Hospital in Chiang Mai in 1992, Dr Kittisak Kulvichit was so inspired by the work he had witnessed, that he joined its crew as a staff member later that year. He began his journey with the Flying Eye Hospital on the island of Cebu in the Philippines, and it was here he met a nurse who had joined the crew on the exact same day.
Neither of them knew it at the time – but following 16 months of fighting avoidable blindness throughout Asia and Eastern Europe, they would go on to become husband and wife!
In 2017, Dr Kulvichit wrote a blog about his experience on board the Flying Eye Hospital – how it helped to shape his career and change his life in more than one way.
Read the full story here: https://orbis-updates.org/LAH-6Q99D-C16IHLE6F8/cr.aspx
Date: 14 February 2020
Visit Moorfields >> Rotterdam
In January Merel Reinink, service improvement manager, visited the Rotterdam Eye Hospital in the Netherlands to observe their high flow cataract pathway. The aim of Merel’s visit was to share best practice and pick up new ideas that could potentially be used at Moorfields. In July last year Moorfields introduced high flow theatre lists for non-complex cataract patients; the lists are a key element of the trust’s cataract strategy.
The Rotterdam team were very welcoming and Merel found the experience both educational and rewarding. She has returned to London with suggestions that could potentially be implemented to help Moorfields’ cataract teams ‘work smarter, not harder’ to continue to achieve improvements in theatre turnaround times – a key goal for the project.
Reflecting on her experience visiting Rotterdam, Merel said:
“I am from the Netherlands originally, but haven’t worked in a hospital there and it was fascinating to see how our Rotterdam colleagues approach some of the same issues we experience from a very different perspective. As a service improvement manager my philosophy is that we should continuously aim to improve. Getting input from outside the trust is really vital to keep projects fresh and generate new ideas, and I found it particularly useful to observe practice in a different country and healthcare system.”
For further information contact Merel at merel.reinink@nhs.net
WAEH PROJECTS
The World Association of Eye Hospitals is a worldwide network of eye hospitals. All member-hospitals are “centres of excellence” in the area of ophthalmology. This means that they are all focused on delivering the highest quality and safest ophthalmic care. The organizations through the WAEH share all kinds of information and knowledge in a very open and transparent way, via teleconferences, personal meetings and exchanges, one day visits or even one month visits to gain greater insight. Another way of knowledge sharing is done via projects.
Project Groups
- Member-led groups
- Collaborate on specific themes from Artificial intelligence to Medical outcomes
- Network to maximise the impact and reach of sharing knowledge
- Share knowledge and experience via teleconferences, the WAEH knowledge hub and via the WAEH newsletter
- Opportunities for project groups to host round tables during the Annual Meeting
Want to know more or run a project yourself?
Contact Maaike van Zuilen: maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org
Jakarta Eye Center
JECIM2020 Opening Ceremony
Congratulations to our full member the Jakarta Eye Center for organizing this wonderful and inspiring international event! Many thanks for inviting Brendon Gardner from the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Koen Vermeer from the Rotterdam Eye Hospital and Dato Kula from the Tunn Husein Onn Eye Hospital, all full members of the WAEH.
Read more about the event here: https://jecim2020.com/
Moorfields to create the UK’s first large-scale glaucoma biobank
Moorfields Eye Hospital is developing a tool to help personalise glaucoma treatment and identity patients most at risk of sight loss at the point of glaucoma diagnosis.
A team at Moorfields, led by Dr Anthony Khawaja, will establish a data resource, known as the Moorfields Glaucoma BioResource, that will be able to make better genetic predictions on which glaucoma patients are most at risk of sight loss and likely to require the most intensive treatment.
The biobank will use data from glaucoma patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the National Institute for Health Research BioResource. It is being developed in response to a recent study by Dr Khawaja, which identified over 100 genetic factors that are associated with intraocular pressure and glaucoma risk.
Read more about glaucoma here: https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/condition/glaucoma
Laico Madurai
Certificate Course on Community Outreach and Social Marketing of Eye Care Services
June 11 – 30, 2020 | LAICO, Madurai
The course is designed to enhance the knowledge and skills for developing capacity to plan and manage the outreach programmes in a most effective and efficient manner.
So far we have trained 404professionals in 46batches from countries like Afghanistan, Africa,Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal and South America have been trained.
Upcoming Batch: Nov 15 – Dec 5, 2019
Next Batch: Jun 11 – 30, 2020
Please note that the sessions will be handled in English. Basic knowledge of understanding English is preferable.
REGISTER NOW I NOMINATE A CANDIDATE I MORE DETAILS
For further details contact:
Mohammed Gowth A.
Course Faculty
0452 – 4356500
mohammed@aravind.org; rajeshs@aravind.org
What’s on the agenda?
Questions? Share News & Events?
Do you have a special request? Would you like to be connected to a certain person in one of our member eye hospitals? News to share? Please do not hesitate to contact Maaike van Zuilen: Maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org