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From The Editors - By Paul Rosen MD FRCS, FRCOphth
Training
programmes necessary for continued innovation
Last
week, I attended a conference in Kiev, Ukraine, organised by Vision
20/20 in liaison with the local ophthalmologists. Two well known
ophthalmologists from the United Kingdom, Mr J Kanski and Mr T Ffytche
accompanied me on my trip. The purpose of the visit was to provide
all the local ophthalmologists with an up-date on new surgical procedures
and establish educational links.
It became apparent, immediately on arrival in the Ukraine, that
there is a huge pool of intellectual talent that will, in the very
near future, with the appropriate educational as well as financial
investment, provide a very major contribution to the advancement
of ophthalmology in the whole of Europe.
Examples of the innovations which have taken place are the development
of one of the systems for wavefront analysis, now being readied
for commercial production in the US. Another example is the establishment
of an intraocular lens implant manufacturing facility.
In this month's issue of the EuroTimes, there are two articles from
Eastern Europe: the Bulgarian contribution to the ECOS and the report
on the delivery of ophthalmological care in the Czech Republic.
They identify very similar problems for the requirement of a structured
training programme, both in basic ophthalmology and at fellowship
level.
It is very impressive that in the Czech Republic the cataract access
rates (about five cataract extractions per 1,000 population) are
already comparable to many in western Europe.
I have no doubt that both ophthalmologists and commercial organisations
in western Europe should support them strongly in their endeavours,
either directly or through organisations such as Vision 20/20.
I would also encourage ophthalmologists in eastern Europe to visit
our web site at www.escrs.org and to join the EuroTimes mailing
list here.
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