The Royal College of Ophthalmologists Sustainable Ophthalmology prize has been awarded for the third time. We had a strong field with several notable examples of sustainable care practices which can hit the triple bottom line of Profit, People and Planet. Saving money, improving equity and reducing carbon emissions.
We saw the National ophthalmology database starting to improve care by permitting risk stratification of patients leading to reduced complication rates, junior trainee surgeons having lower complication rates through increased use of the Eyesi simulator, unnecessary transfers of premature neonates with ROP reduced by use of teleophthalmology, cataract productivity benchmarking from South Africa, India and Wales, nurse applied SLT laser, increased patient involvement in service and research planning, twin bedded operating theatres in the Highlands, virtual glaucoma clinics, patient passports for uveitis and glaucoma, patients as teachers, the Arclight ophthalmoscope giving more students and nurses a shot at mastering direct ophthalmoscopy, the InVitria helping nurses to get up to speed with intravitreals and UK prisoners having unmet needs in relation to their eye care.
But the overall winner from this amazing field was the CatCam from Louise Allen’s team in Cambridge which amazingly boasts 100% sensitivity and specificity for picking up paediatric cataract and promises to reduce false positive and false negative screening results all at the push of a button. When widely adopted this will save time, money and above all sight years for children with congenital cataract.
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