News & Views

Monday 28 February is Rare disease day, a day for raising awareness and generating change for the 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease, their families and carers. This year the British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit will celebrate 25 years of rare disease surveillance so today seemed a good opportunity to recognise how this globally unique research unit has impacted the treatment and management of many rare eye conditions. The BOSU has supported over 80 high impact studies of excellent quality that have broadened knowledge and understanding and brought benefit for patients across ophthalmic subspecialties and demographics.

The new website provides a comprehensive insight into the world of ophthalmic and vision sciences research and academic ophthalmology careers.

Eye’s 2020 Impact Factor is now 3.775; a big jump up from 2.455 in 2019! The journal’s rank within ophthalmology journals has also changed from 22/60 to 12/62.

The Eye journal has produced an animated video to accompany the Jan 2021 special issue on ‘Imaging’.  It includes a comprehensive collection of updates on ocular imaging that are applicable to all fields in Ophthalmology. 

After a six month break, The British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit has restarted case ascertainment from November 2020, recommencing the yellow card reporting system with the five studies that were already running.

The British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit is advertising the RED Trust Bursary open for applications from Ophthalmologists in Training.

In this episode with speak with Bhavin Shah, an Optometrist from North London with a special interest in myopia management. He provides an overview of the literature regarding existing and future treatments and provides a personal insight into how he manages patients in whom progressive myopia is suspected.

Coinciding with World Sight Day today, a group of researchers from the UK from Cambridge, Belfast and Ulster have published in Acta Ophthalmologica the largest analysis of self-reported vision impairment in Europe.

Prior to COVID-19, approximately 80% of Trusts were engaged with at least one study, with on average 15,000 patients recruited to Ophthalmology studies per year. The NIHR’s Ophthalmology Specialty Group (OSG) for the Clinical Research Network has been working closely with its regional leads across the UK to support the sites where 41% of portfolio studies have been paused because of COVID.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has launched its national training survey.