Since its establishment in 1997, the Lions Eye Hospital has grown to be recognized as one of the best equipped ophthalmic institutions in Eastern Africa. The hospital is also the biggest in the country in terms of surgical volume and the number of patients treated. Each year, over 5,000 cataract operations are carried out.

 

Over the years, Lions Loresho has gained national and international reputation for its service orientation, modern ophthalmic techniques and its community-based outreach activities which deliver quality eye care to the rural communities. In order to spread lessons learnt and develop human resources in the region, Lions Eye Hospital and Right to Sight, Dublin established a Medical Training Centre.

 

The training centre recognises the need for transition from conventional surgical procedures to state-of-the-art techniques in management of cataracts. Starting 1^st of July 2010, the Lions Medical Training Centre has been offering a six-week competency course in Small Incision Cataract Surgery. For ophthalmic surgeons all over the world, manual SICS provides the ideal stepping stone to mastering phacoemulsification. The objective of this course is to convert an ECCE surgeon to perform SICS with the help of a well structured training program.

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Started in 2003, Aravind is the most recognized MSICS training facility in the world.  Join leading experts at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Coimbatore, Madurai, Pondicherry, or  Tirunelveli for a month long training session.  Candidates should have 3 years experience in Ophthalmology after completing MS or DOMS in Ophthalmology and should have undergone ECCE training at Aravind.  Please email Aravind for more information.

The following publication was field research carried out by Emmanuel Byamakuma, a KCMC ophthalmology resident (since graduated from KCMC) as part of his dissertation and supported by Sight Savers International to understand the existing knowledge and skills of general health workers (from dispensaries in Tanzania) regarding primary eye care.  The findings, while quite disappointing (very low level of knowledge and skills) have provided the evidence for looking at new ways to improve the skills of general health workers.  Thus, since Emmanuel’s work, KCCO’s Edson Eliah and Marvice Okwen, a KCMC ophthalmology resident, with funding from our Africa Health Systems Initiative grant (from IDRC, Canada), have trained district eye staff on “skills-based supervision” to see if revisions to the supervision mechanisms can improve skills, and eventually improve services.

In collaboration with Ciku Mathenge and Asiwome Seneadza, KCCO published a review of the published literature on the impact of primary eye care on eye care service delivery or use of eye care services in Africa.  As many people have noted over the past few years, what is the evidence of the benefit of training general health workers in primary eye care?  Does it increase use of eye care services (e.g., are more patients referred for cataract surgery or for other blinding conditions?).  Their literature review revealed a lack of evidence of impact; that is, there was no demonstrable impact on eye care services through PEC.  It is important to note that this does not mean that PEC does not work—it is just that there is no evidence.  The review also noted that it would be important to address some key areas (e.g., definitions of primary eye care, consideration of catchment areas, review of curriculum) and to carry out some robust research.