WAEH Community of Practice – Innovation | 28 May 2026
On Thursday 28 May 2026, the WAEH held its first Community of Practice on Innovation, led by Nathalie Popken, Manager Research & Innovation at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and Joy Adesanya, Assistant Divisional Manager at the Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, United Kingdom). The session brought together ophthalmic nurses and allied health professionals from Australia, Brazil, Chili, France, the United Kingdom, India, Ireland, Rwanda, the United States of America, the Netherlands and beyond.
Maaike van Zuilen, global lead of the WAEH, gave a warm welcome to everyone joining this first meeting of the CoP on Innovation. Nathalie Popken then continued by outlining the distinction between research and innovation in healthcare, emphasizing that innovation often focuses on practical solutions that can be implemented more rapidly in clinical settings. She also introduced the Rotterdam Eye Hospital’s upcoming “Eye Innovators Lab,” which aims to involve blind and visually impaired patients in testing new technologies designed to improve accessibility and workforce participation.
Joy Adesanya presented Project Hercules, an operational innovation initiative developed at Moorfields Eye Hospital following the COVID-19 pandemic. The project transformed a vacant retail space in Brent Cross shopping centre into a diagnostic hub for glaucoma and medical retina patients, aimed at increasing patient capacity and reducing waiting times. Using iterative clinic redesigns and patient-flow tracking technology, the project identified more efficient models of care delivery and has since evolved into a permanent service model supporting multiple ophthalmic subspecialties.
Alan Kastner, Ophthalmologist Glaucoma Surgeon and Research Director from the Clínica Oftalmológica Pasteur from Santiago (Chile), presented an update on the WAEH Project ‘Anaesthetic modalities, cost and patient-reported intraoperative pain in ophthalmic surgery’. The project investigates how different anesthetic modalities in cataract surgery affect patient pain perception and complication rates. This multicenter study includes already several hospitals within the WAEH network, including the Aravind Eye Care System (India), the Rotterdam Eye Hospital (the Netherlands), Hoftalon Eye Hospital (Brazil) and Moorfields Eye Hospital (United Kingdom). Alan stressed that the study is designed to be simple and minimally disruptive to clinical workflows, and he encourages WAEH members to join this research project, as a large amount of data will be extremely valuable to draw conclusions about which anesthetic modality in cataract surgery has the best outcomes. Indeed, several of the participants, including the University Eye Center Maastricht (the Netherlands) and theThe Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (Ireland), indicated great interest to join the study, and more are always welcome!
The meeting concluded with a brainstorming session led by Nathalie Popken and Joy Adesanya on future collaboration within the Community of Practice. Participants discussed sharing pilot projects, operational innovations, and implementation experiences, while also highlighting common challenges such as limited staff capacity and funding. Artificial intelligence emerged as an important future topic, particularly regarding implementation, governance, and digital infrastructure. Together with Frank van den Biggelaar (University Eye Center Maastricht), Nathalie will send a survey to the global network to assess the current state of innovation progress and capacity. Overall, the launch of the Community of Practice demonstrated strong international interest in creating a collaborative platform for ophthalmic research and innovation.
Read the full report and watch the full recording on the Knowledge Hub website (for members only).
The Community of Practice for Innovation will come together online again on site during the 20th WAEH Annual Meeting from 9-13 November 2026 in São Paulo (Brazil), and on 17 December 2026.
Read more about the Communities of Practice here.