Global Blindness: Planning and Managing Eye Care Services

Around the world, 285 million people are blind or visually impaired. 75% of this is avoidable and 90% is in low- and middle-income countries. In this free online course, we highlight the key facts about avoidable blindness and global initiatives to address it. Planning and managing eye care We will explore practical, tried and tested approaches for strengthening local eye health services, in resource limited settings. By the end of the course you will able to: Examine the epidemiology of blindness and visual impairment globally and locally Relate to global initiatives to tackle blindness, such as VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and the WHO Global Action Plan 2014 – 2019 Evaluate the key disease control strategies for effective cataract and refractive error service provision, applicable within local settings Understand and apply the essentials of the planning process for strengthening eye care service Apply the principles of monitoring and evaluation to a local programme. Learn with other eye care professionals globally This is a global course, enabling you to meet and learn from a range of health professionals in eye care, working with varied resources and infrastructure. Through video interviews, you will meet public health and clinical experts working at both global and community levels. You will also exchange ideas and experiences through the course discussion, and put what you learn to the test through case studies and quizzes. You can find out more about what to expect from this course in Dr Daksha Patel’s post for the FutureLearn blog: “How do we stop the poor and isolated going blind from cataract?” Our Course Mentors are all eye care professionals working in different settings across the world. Throughout the course they will take part in the discussions and share their expertise in delivering eye care services. South-East Asia Course Mentor: Shamanna Bindiganavale Africa Course Mentor: Henrietta Ifechukwude Monye Europe & Africa Course Mentor: Claire Studley Scott Eastern Mediterranean Course Mentor: Rabiu Mansur Western Pacific Course Mentor: Xiao Baixiang Europe, South-East Asia and Africa Course Mentor: Priya Morjaria Photo by D Subramanyam CC BY-NC

• Dr Daksha Patel