In May Dr Guy D’Mellow from the Terrace Eye Centre spent a week lecturing and instructing Vietnamese ophthalmologists on Glaucoma.

This was conducted in Hanoi at the Vietnamese National Institute of Ophthalmology and part of a yearlong process organised through the Sight for All charity. Every month a selected glaucoma specialist spends one week upskilling local ophthalmologists on a broad range of glaucoma topics so that over the course of the 12 months an in county Fellowship programme is achieved.

The Vietnamese Institute of Ophthalmology (VINO) is a large referral centre servicing the whole north of the country. It has 500 staff, 600 inpatient beds, and deals with in excess of 2,000 patients a day!
Sadly glaucoma is a major cause of visual disability in Vietnam and it is hoped that programmes such as this involving formal lectures, case discussion, clinic outpatient sessions and surgical instruction can improve outcomes for the population.