Tuesday October 4 – Thursday October 6

WAEH 16TH Annual Meeting

Want to know more about AI in eyecare? Or how to improve wellness for your team? Register now for The 16th Annual WAEH Meeting from 4 – 6 October 2022 in Baltimore, United States of America! 🇺🇸Hosted by theWilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, USA), leader in the delivery of state-of-the-art eye care and research.

This year’s themes? Artificial Intelligence, Innovation in Eyecare, Designing Eye Hospitals, Improving Healthcare Delivery Design, Hospital Management and Fundraising. You do not want to miss this in person meeting! 

Due to the strict corona measurements, it will unfortunately not be possible anymore to visit San Francisco. Therefore, the programme will be shortened and we will stay in Baltimore from 4 to 6 October, with possibilities for 1 on 1 meetings, brainstorms and sight seeing on October 7. Short overview of the structure of the programme:

Tuesday October 4:
WAEH Board meeting / Innovative visit with meet and greet start ups in eyecare (from ophthalmologists from Wilmer!)/ Member Meeting / Welcoming Dinner
Wednesday October 5:
Full day programme with presentations in the Lab building of Wilmer, launch of the new WAEH project about eye drops – Visit Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins
Thursday October 6:
Full day programme with presentations – Communities of Practice Meetings Medical Outcomes and Nursing
Friday October 7 (facultative):
1 on 1 meetings, brainstorms, sightseeing

Read more here – View the programme here!

WAEH 16th Annual Meeting

Open for registration!

Want to attend the 16th Annual Meeting in Baltimore? 
Is your hospital a member of the WAEH? Full members have two free passes to the meeting, associate members one. Send an email to Maaike for your free access code.

Want to present during the WAEH Annual Meeting in Baltimore?

Member meeting 2022 Tuesday October 4

Want to share your ideas to improve the WAEH? Please join the Member Meeting of the WAEH during the 16th annual meeting in Baltimore. We will talk about the Board composition (still one vacancy!), the activity plan for the upcoming years and the budget and fee scheme. Full members have the ability to vote, associate members can join and share their ideas!

The Member Meeting is planned on Tuesday October 4, 04.00 PM.

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Louisa Wickham appointed National Clinical Director for Eye Care

Louisa Wickham, consultant ophthalmologist and medical director at Moorfields Eye Hospital, has been appointed by NHS England as the first ever national clinical director for eye care.

Louisa will take responsibility for developing national strategies and overseeing eye care across England, and this new role will put ophthalmology, which is the largest generator of outpatient appointments, on a par with other major specialties.

Read more here

Wilmer Eye Institute 

Tapping Precision Medicine to Individualize Eye Care

“People often say AI is the fourth industrial revolution, and I’m a believer,” says T.Y. Alvin Liu, director of the Wilmer Precision Ophthalmology Center of Excellence. “It’s going to change medicine, and definitely ophthalmology, as we know it.” Read in Insight how Liu envisions using artificial intelligence to personalize medical treatment and predict how quickly a patient’s eye disease might progress.

T.Y. Alvin Liu will also give a presentation during the WAEH Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

Wills Eye Hospital

Victoria Cohen scholarship awarded to Vijitha Vempuluru

Vijitha Vempuluru from AIIMS Hyderabad, India, is the first recipient of a Victoria Cohen Scholarship for aspiring ocular oncologists.

The Judging Panel for the Victoria Cohen Eye Cancer Charitable Trust, made up of six leading eye specialists, was in unanimous agreement that Vijitha was the worthy winner despite a strong shortlist of applicants.

Vijitha was presented with a trophy at the recent ISOO conference in Leiden, Netherlands, in recognition of her achievement and $25,000 USD to support her during her fellowship at the Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, USA, one of the full members of the World Association of Eyehospitals.

In this picture Vijitha Vempuluru is standing next to Nicholas Rapley, currently Chairperson at Victoria Cohen Eye Cancer Charitable Trust.

Read more here

Wilmer Eye institute

New Tools for Leveraging Regenerative Medicine to Restore Sight in Glaucoma

Once people have lost vision in glaucoma, there’s no recovering it. Thomas Johnson, III, M.D., Ph.D., the Allan and Shelley Holt Rising Professor in Ophthalmology is on a mission to change that.

Read more here

The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital

WAEH project Medical Outcomes – Keratoconus

On June 30, Dr. Elsie Chan from the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital has joined the three monthly Board Meeting of the WAEH and gave an update about the lessons learned during the WAEH project Medical Outcomes focusing on Keratoconus. The team of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital is currently developing the codebook for this specific outcome set which can be implemented by the ICT Departments of the WAEH members. The WAEH Medical Outcomes group Keratoconus will come together in person during the annual meeting in Baltimore. The final set and codebook will be uploaded on the WAEH Knowledge Hub as soon as it is ready. 

Want to know more? Join the Annual Meeting! Register here.

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Friends of Moorfields awarded 25k to upskill volunteers

Friends of Moorfields have been successful in winning a £25k award from Health Education England (HEE) which will be used to support the upskilling of volunteers who are looking to embark on a career within healthcare.

The ‘Volunteer to Career’ project will support Moorfields’s recruitment needs by encouraging current volunteers to consider healthcare careers, and to encourage members of the public to consider volunteering as a ‘stepping stone’ into a healthcare career. The project will building on the strong links that Friends of Moorfields has forged with two local schools, Central Foundation Boys School, and Swanley School, to offer volunteering opportunities to young people. Read more here.

University Eye Clinic Maastricht

Glaucoma drop aid app

Prof. Dr. C.A.B. Webers, head of the University Clinic for Ophthalmology at Maastricht UMC+, is co-developer of the Glaucoma Drip Aid App.

The Glaucoomdrop Aid app reminds you to drip your eyes daily. You can also keep track of when you have dripped, what your eye pressure is and when you have doctor’s appointments. You can also save examination photos of your eyes and personal notes in the app.

The app also includes instructions on how best to apply drops and general information on glaucoma. You can adjust the text size if needed. For users with low vision, the app includes instructions on how to use the built-in screen reader (VoiceOver).

This app can only be used with a login code that you receive from your eye doctor (in participating hospitals).

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital

Refreshed ophthalmology training for internal and external professionals

Last year The Rotterdam Eye Hospital started creating enhanced learning content. Old digital modules are in co-creation with consultants, training experts, users and ophthalmologists transformed into fifteen contemporary and attractive learning paths.

The Rotterdam Eye Hospital is a teaching hospital with 27 trainee ophthalmologists and a lot of in-house training, such as the training for Technical Ophthalmic Assistants and Physician Assistants. Hester Griek, Advisor Education and Development and project leader of the learning content project: “One of our strategic pillars is to be a leader in training. We want to offer high quality care and therefore we invest in different ways in the knowledge, skills and abilities of our employees.   

Read more here (in Dutch)

Wilmer Eye Institute – John Hopkins

Student-led Volunteer Group Gives Free Vision Screenings and Follow-up Care to Baltimore Residents

About 3 million Americans — mostly older adults — have glaucoma, a degenerative eye condition that can cause blindness. If caught early enough and treated, blindness from glaucoma can be prevented. However, half the people with glaucoma don’t know they have it until it’s too late, highlighting the need for regular eye exams. Thanks to ViSION (Vision Screening in Our Neighborhoods), a volunteer Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine student group, Baltimore residents with poor vision or eye disease can get free screenings and follow-up care, regardless of their ability to pay.

“We’re a group of enthusiastic and motivated medical students who are looking to serve our community and reduce health care disparities,” says fourth-year medical student Heba Mahjoub. “If we see a problem, we act on it. Whether or not they have health insurance, we can help them.”

Read more here

REMINDER

International Schwartz Rounds: looking for panelists

During the coronapandemic the WAEH together with the team from Moorfields organized two webinars about the Schwartz Rounds. This year we would like to organize these rounds again and are looking for panelists! 

Schwartz Rounds provide a structured forum where all staff, clinical and non-clinical, come together regularly to discuss the emotional and social aspects of working in healthcare. 

The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and rewards that are intrinsic to providing care, not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care. Rounds can help staff feel more supported in their jobs, to give them the time and space to reflect on their roles which they might not otherwise have in their everyday routines on busy hospital wards, theatres, clinics and departments.

In recent years, trained facilitators at Moorfields have successfully coordinated Schwartz Rounds as part of an event among the WAEH community. If you would like to share your story, please contact Maaike van Zuilen: Maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org. 

Interested to organize these rounds in your eyehospital? We could also organize a webinar where the team of Moorfields trains your staff.  

Questions? Share news?

Do you have a special request? Would you like to organize a webinar or share news? Fill in this WAEH form

Or would you like to be (digitally) connected to a certain person in one of our member eye hospitals? Please feel very welcome to contact Maaike van Zuilen: Maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org