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International Council of Ophthalmology

Ophthalmic Education:

News, Educational Programs and Resources for Ophthalmologists


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Also see: other news of ophthalmic education.

ICEH Offers Public Health Ophthalmology Courses in 2010

The International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) will offer the following public health ophthalmology courses in 2010:

Diploma in Community Eye Health (download PDF description)
22nd February 2010 - 21st May 2010

Tropical Ophthalmology (download PDF description)
29th March 2010 - 31st March 2010

Planning for Vision 2020 (download PDF description)
12th July 2010 - 16th July 2010

MSc Community Eye Health (download PDF description)
27th September 2010 - 16th September 2011

Further information and an application form can be found on the Education, Courses section of the LSHTM website: www.iceh.org.uk.

World Ophthalmic Education Colloquium to be Held at WOC 2010

The ICO will host a second World Ophthalmic Education Colloquium (WOEC) June 7-8, 2010 at the World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin. Building on the success of the first WOEC in Hong Kong in 2008, it will feature eight symposia highlighting new techniques and trends in Ophthalmic Education.

More than 50 speakers in eight symposia covering essential topics in ophthalmic education will be featured:

  • Residency Program Development and Education
  • Innovative and Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning in Ophthalmology
  • Teaching Ophthalmology to Medical Students
  • Training Para-ophthalmic Personnel
  • Continuing Education
  • Teaching Ophthalmic Subspecialties in Developing and Developed Countries

Developing Ophthalmologic Organizations and Refocusing Ophthalmic Education

At the recent Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology/American Academy of Ophthalmology Joint Meeting in San Francisco, the ICO held a World Ophthalmic Residency Leadership Development (WORLD) session on Developing Ophthalmologic Organizations and Refocusing Ophthalmic Education, co-sponsored by the PAAO. Ori Brafman, Co-Author of The Starfish and the Spider, spoke on how “starfish” organizations tap into the power of a leaderless structure.

The attendees engaged in a discussion on how to utilize the wisdom of the book in ophthalmology. Each attendee received a copy of the book in English or Spanish. For more information on the book, see www.starfishandspider.com.

Technology Resources for Teaching and Learning

Technology for Teaching and Learning—a Blog on How to Teach:
icotechnology.blogspot.com/
Practical tips and information for educators on subjects like conceptual maps, adding narration to PowerPoint presentations, synchronous e-learning, Wikis, and teaching evidence based medicine.

ICO’s WORD:
www.icoword.org
E-learning lectures and resources for residency training and more.

American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (O.N.E.) Network:
one.aao.org
An educational online resource that combines clinical content, news and tools from a variety of sources.

Orbis Cyber-Sight Question of the week:
telemedicine.orbis.org/bins/content_page.asp?cid=1-178
Test your residents’ knowledge (and yours).

European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Web page:
conference2web.com/escrs/DefAnon.aspx
Symposia, videos, free papers and posters presented at the ESCRS congresses. Access additional free content when you register on the site.

If you are aware of any other technology resources for teaching and learning that you would like to suggest, please send them to word@icoph.org.

E-Learning in Ophthalmology Course Now Online

The full online presentations with audio from a course on E-Learning organized by the ICO Technology Task Force at the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) Congress in Amsterdam in June 2009 are now available.

This course was created to share new teaching tools and techniques with educators to help them incorporate technology into their teaching and to the teaching and learning process.

Click on the links below to take a self-paced tour through the presentations. You can control the slides to navigate to the various subjects that might interest you.

E-Learning: Why Bother?
Dr. Paul Rosen, Oxford, United Kingdom

Classroom vs. Web-based Teaching
Dr. Gabriela Palis, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous E-learning
Dr. Karl Golnik, Cincinnati, United States

Instructional Design
Dr. Tero Kivelä, Helsinki, Finland

Friendly Software for E-teachers
Dr. Helena Prior Filipe, Lisbon, Portugal

Learning Management Systems
Dr. Eduardo Mayorga, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Starting E-learning Projects
Dr. Florindo Esperancinha, Lisbon, Portugal

E-learning in Europe
Dr. Marie-José Tassignon, Antwerp, Belgium

Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning

The new ICO Task Force on Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning has been making dramatic progress under the leadership of Dr. Eduardo Mayorga of Argentina. The Task is exploring new emerging technologies for ophthalmic education and providing technical guidance for online continuing medical education courses and other learning experiences.

The task force is also working on the development of four web-based courses for residents: Ophthalmic Pathology, Low Vision, Community Eye Care, and Ophthalmic Ultrasound.

The World Ophthalmology Residency Development (WORD) online resource center and forum will now be a major program of the Task Force on Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning. WORD was created in 2008 by Dr. Mayorga and Dr. Gabriela Palis to help residency program directors share resources. Visit WORD at www.icoword.org.

How Can We Improve Ophthalmic Education?

After ophthalmology residency training, what should be the next highest priority for efforts to improve ophthalmic education worldwide, and why?

Should we emphasize training of allied eye care personnel? Medical students? Subspecialists? Use of new educational technology?

How important are accreditation of training programs and certification of graduates?

International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) President Bruce Spivey, MD, and Education Director Mark Tso, MD, are asking leaders of ophthalmologic societies and educational programs to answer questions like this and contribute to a new ICO initiative on "Refocusing Ophthalmic Education."

Please submit your comments by clicking on the "Comments" link after the questions at:

archive.icoph.org/refocus

Download the proposal for "Refocusing Ophthalmic Education" from:

archive.icoph.org/pdf/icorefocusing.pdf.

The goal of the initiative is to engage the leaders of ophthalmologic societies and other ophthalmic educators in a process of rethinking and redefining how we teach ophthalmologists and others to provide eye care, leading to the development of more effective teaching programs and materials and, ultimately, improved eye care around the world.

Presentations on Adult Learning and Effective Teaching

The first discussion of "Refocusing Ophthalmic Education" by members of the ICO Board and Advisory Committee was at the Middle East African Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) Congress in Bahrain in March.

Several stimulating presentations from that session are now available online with audio:

Adult Learning Strategies for Improving Life Long Education Better Examinations: moving from the apprenticeship model to a competency model (Dr. Andrew Lee)
http://campustercertermino.com/ttpresenter/ico/1lee/player.html

Progress in Effective Teaching Methods: Examples of new education models and technology for teaching and Examination (Dr. Karl Golnik)
http://campustercertermino.com/ttpresenter/ico/2golnik/player.html

Summary/Discussion (Dr. Bruce Spivey).

New Curriculum for Ophthalmic Medical Assistants

A new International Core Curriculum For Ophthalmic Assistants is now available: archive.icoph.org/pdf/ICOCurriculumOMA.pdf (PDF - 2MB).

It focuses on five core competencies: Patient care; Medical knowledge; Professionalism, Interpersonal and Communication skills; Technical and Scientific skills; and Community and Health Services. The competencies are organized into three sections: Introduction to Ophthalmology, Basic Skills, and Advanced Skills.

The curriculum was developed by the ICO and the International Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (IJCAHPO), written by Dr. William Astle, Chair of the ICO Task Force on Para-Ophthalmic Vision Specialist Education; and Lynn Anderson, Executive Director of IJCAHPO.

We are interested in hearing your comments on this new curriculum.

You may also want to refer to the previously published Principles and Guidelines of Curriculum for Para-ophthalmic Vision Specialist Education, which has examples of curricula for community and hospital-based personnel, orthoptists and ophthalmic technicians. That curriculum is available here: icoph.org/pdf/icocurricpara.pdf. (PDF – 2.2 MB) We encourage ophthalmologic societies and residency programs to reproduce, translate and adapt these curricula as needed to enhance ophthalmic education in all regions of the world.

ICO Eye Site offers resources for ophthalmic education

The International Council of Ophthalmology's Eye Site offers news, information and resources related to educational meetings and programs, including:

Publication of ICO curricula for ophthalmic education

Mark Tso, MD
ICO Education Director Mark Tso, MD

The German journal Klinischen Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde published the ICO’s four international curricula for ophthalmic education as supplements to its November 2006 issue.

They can be downloaded from the ICO Web site:

Definition of model curricula for ophthalmic education was one of the top priorities defined in the Vision for the Future strategic plan for international ophthalmology adopted in 2001.

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

ICO offers educational materials for medical students online

To supplement its Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students, the ICO offers educational resources for medical students that are referenced on its Web site.

The educational materials include:

  • Selected clinical images from the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Ophthalmic Images v.3, donated to the ICO to support education of medical students

  • a series of PowerPoint lectures for medical students contributed by Susan Lightman, FRCP, FRCOphth, PhD, Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

There are also other useful resources for teaching medical students available on the Web at no charge.

Curriculum for residency training available in Spanish

A new version of the curriculum for ophthamology residency training is also available in Spanish, from archive.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricressp.pdf (220 KB). This is a translation of the latest version of the ICO Curriculum.

The previous and first version in Spanish was translated by Council Member Enrique Graue, MD, former President of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology.

Residency Curriculum recognized as "Best Practice"

The ICO's "Principles and Guidelines of a Curriculum for Education of the Ophthalmic Specialist" has been recognized as a "Best Practice" by the Residency Review Committee of the (U.S.) Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

The Residency Curriculum is included in a listing of "exemplary models of curriculum or practices." It was prepared by Morton Goldberg, MD and Andrew Lee, MD, for the ICO's International Task Force on Resident and Specialist Education in Ophthalmology.

Courses for residency program directors

The following are the ICO sponsored regional courses for ophthalmology residency program directors in 2010:

  • Ankara, Turkey, March 31-April 1
  • Xian, China, May 3-4
  • Crete, Greece, to be announced

Previous Courses, 2006-2009:

  • March 23 – 24, 2006 in Lima for residency directors from Peru, Bolivia and other nearby countries
  • June 15 – 16, 2006 in Cairo for residency directors from Egypt and neighboring countries
  • February 27 - 28, 2007 in Lahore, Pakistan, in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology
  • July 16 - 17, 2007 in Buenos Aires, for residency directors from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay
  • September 1 - 2, 2007 in Brasilia, Brazil
  • September 29 - 30, 2008 in Slovenia
  • December 6 - 7, 2008 in Ethiopia
  • February 9-10, 2009 in Bogota, Colombia
  • May 10 - 12, 2009 in Beijing, China
  • May 14-15, 2009 in Bali, Indonesia

All courses are organized in cooperation with national and supranational ophthalmologic societies, with support from Allergan.

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

The first course for residency program directors was organized in Mexico City in 2004 by Council Member Enrique Graue, MD, and has served as a model for the others.

ICO Clinical Guidelines now available as PDF files

ICO International Clinical Guidlines PDF
ICO Clinical
Guidelines PDF

The International Council of Ophthalmology's 20 International Clinical Guidelines can now all be downloaded as PDF files.

Download the complete set of 20 from archive.icoph.org/pdf/ICOClinicalGuidlines.pdf (348 KB).

To download individual Guidelines, see archive.icoph.org/guide/guidelist.html.

The Guidelines are designed to be translated and adapted by ophthalmologic societies to help ophthalmologists assess how they are treating patients. They are intended to serve a supportive and educational role and ultimately to improve the quality of eye care for patients.

2010 Examinations on April 15

January 31, 2010 was the deadline to apply to take the 2010 Examinations, which will be offered on April 15. For applications, contact the Examinations Office at its new address:

11-43 Bath Street
London
EC1V 9EL
England

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7608 6949
Fax: +44 207 608 6947
Email: assess@icoph.org
Web: www.icoexams.org

Resources to help prepare for the Examinations

Now available for download from the ICO Web site are lists of books, Web sites and courses that may be particularly helpful in preparing for both the Basic and Clinical Examination:

ICO initiative to enhance training

Bruce Spivey, MD
ICO President
Bruce Spivey, MD

The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) has asked member societies to join in an initiative to enhance training to meet the needs of the public for eye care.

"The critical need is for training of more ophthalmologists and other eye care providers around the world to meet the needs of the public for eye care and thereby prevent avoidable blindness and visual loss," according to ICO President Bruce E. Spivey, MD.

"The challenge is for international ophthalmology, particularly national and subspecialty ophthalmologic societies, to provide the leadership for training those personnel, with a clear goal of increasing access to quality eye care around the world."


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