WAEH Launches Community of Practice – FAIR Images in Ophthalmology | 26 February 2026
The World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH) officially launched the new Community of Practice (CoP) – FAIR data in ophthalmology on 26 February 2026, led by Ciara Bergen, Chief Data Officer at Fondation Asile des Aveugles in Lausanne. The meeting was moderated by Maaike van Zuilen, Global Lead of the WAEH. The session brought together colleagues from the Netherlands, Switzerland, China, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Brazil, Pakistan, France, Rwanda, United Kingdom, Chile, Sweden and Singapore.
What Is FAIR Data?
FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. While FAIR principles are widely adopted in research, this community emphasizes their practical and operational application in eye hospitals. In ophthalmology – where vast volumes of imaging data are generated daily – FAIR data management is essential to improving clinical workflows, enabling AI deployment, strengthening research validity, and ultimately enhancing patient outcomes.
Why FAIR Matters in Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology faces unique challenges compared to other imaging-intensive specialties (such as radiology):
- High diversity of imaging modalities (OCT, OCTA, fundus photography, ultra-widefield imaging, etc.)
- Device fragmentation across manufacturers
- Inconsistent metadata (e.g., laterality, anatomical region, scan protocols)
- Proprietary formats limiting interoperability
- Manual patient data entry leading to errors
- License limitations and workflow inefficiencies
- Difficulty migrating historical imaging archives
Participants confirmed common pain points across institutions worldwide:
- Hybrid or fragmented image storage systems
- Manual patient identification corrections
- Limited Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standardization
- Slow systems due to growing image volumes
- Inconsistent metadata preventing reliable data reuse
Despite major investments in AI development and regulatory approvals, many tools fail to integrate into clinical workflows due to these structural barriers.
Local vs. Systemic Challenges
The discussion distinguished between:
Local Challenges
- Infrastructure decisions (Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) integration)
- Governance and consent management
- Institutional workflow configuration
- Biomedical engineering capacity
Systemic Challenges
- Vendor ecosystem fragmentation
- Non-uniform DICOM implementation
- Proprietary metadata tagging
- Inconsistent anatomical and scan protocol labeling
- Lack of cross-device comparability
Addressing systemic barriers requires collective action, which is what this Community of Practice hopes to achieve.
A Shared Metadata Dictionary: A Strategic Priority
A key proposal from the session was the development of a shared ophthalmology metadata dictionary across WAEH member hospitals. This would:
- Standardize definitions (e.g., laterality, anatomical region, scan type)
- Map device-specific tags across manufacturers
- Enable consistent cohort identification
- Improve PACS configuration and worklists
- Facilitate clean data migration
- Support multi-center research
- Enable scalable AI deployment
By speaking with a unified voice, WAEH members can engage industry partners more effectively and advocate for standardized, interoperable solutions.
Agreed Next Steps
Participants expressed strong interest in moving from discussion to action. Agreed priorities include:
- Developing minimum FAIR baseline criteria for ophthalmic imaging.
- Creating shared best-practice guidelines for image management.
- Initiating work on a common metadata dictionary.
- Engaging vendors in parallel discussions to address systemic interoperability issues.
- Establishing smaller working groups to meet regularly (every 2-3 months).
The Community of Practice will reconvene on 27 August 2026, with interim working group progress shared beforehand.
A Global Collaborative Effort
With participation from hospitals across Europe, South America, Asia, and beyond, this initiative reflects a growing global recognition: FAIR image management is not merely an IT issue – it is a clinical quality, research validity, and patient outcome imperative.
By collaborating across institutions, WAEH members aim to accelerate the maturity of ophthalmic data systems and ensure that innovation in imaging and AI translates into real-world clinical impact.
Watch the full recording on the Knowledge Hub website (for members only).
The Community of Practice – FAIR Images in Ophthalmology will reconvene on 27 August 2026, as part of WAEH’s ongoing programme of Communities of Practice on key topics in eye hospital management.
Read more about the Communities of Practice here.