The final day of the VISION 2020 conference was much more clinically focused than the first two days. The participants and trainees from the Flying Eye Hospital program joined the conference today, making the majority of the audience ophthalmologists.
Lecture topics included prevention of glaucoma blindness and pediatric ophthalmology units. One of ORBIS’s volunteer faculty, Dr. Manish Dave, spoke about the advantages of using Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) rather than Extra Capsular Cataract Excision (ECCE). SICS is a less invasive technique, and is quickly becoming the preferred method of removing cataracts. Dr. Dave showed several videos of the technique, although I had some trouble watching them without getting queasy!
The day ended with a wrap-up of the action points from the conference. The VISION 2020 coordinators from each country were given a good percentage of the follow-up work, but everyone walked away with a task to do, and a role to play, in improving eye care in East Africa.
It was an incredible experience to meet so many influential policy makers and ophthalmologists from all over East Africa, and I am very glad to have been able to be a part of it.
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