The
International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) is committed to leading
efforts to improve ophthalmic education to meet the growing need for
eye care worldwide.
To
enhance educational programs and ensure best practices are available,
the ICO focuses on "Teaching the Teachers," and offers
curricula, conferences, courses, and resources to those involved in
ophthalmic education. By providing ophthalmic educators with the
tools to become better teachers, we will have better-trained
ophthalmologists and professionals throughout the world, with the
ultimate result being better patient care.
Launched
in 2012, the ICO’s Center for Ophthalmic Educators,
educators.icoph.org, offers a broad
array of educational tools, resources, and guidelines for teachers of
residents, medical students, subspecialty fellows, practicing
ophthalmologists, and allied eye care personnel.
The
Center enables resources to be sorted by intended audience and guides
ophthalmology teachers in the construction of web-based courses,
development and use of assessment tools, and applying evidence-based
strategies for enhancing adult learning. The interactive feature,
“Connections,” is the Center’s dynamic focal point, where
ophthalmic educators can share ideas and collaborate with peers.
The
Center builds on the ICO’s original interactive online educational
presence: World Ophthalmology Residency Development (WORD), which was
developed in 2008 by Eduardo Mayorga, MD, ICO Director for
E-Learning, and Gabriela Palis, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Center for
Ophthalmic Educators.
ICO
Residency Curriculum
The
ICO Residency Curriculum is one of the many vital online resources
available at the Center for Ophthalmic Educators. Originally
published in the journal Klinische Monätsblatter für
Augenheilkunde in 2006, the ICO Residency Curriculum recently
underwent a thorough revision under the leadership of Andrew G. Lee,
MD, Chair. The updated Residency Curriculum offers an international
consensus on what residents in ophthalmology should be taught.
Sixteen global committees, divided by subspecialty and guided by
individual subspecialty chairs, updated the existing guidelines and
references, reinforcing essential cognitive and technical ophthalmic
skills.
Changes
include the addition of a new section, Community Eye Health.
Refractive Surgery, previously a subset of Cornea, External Diseases,
and Refractive Surgery, is now a stand-alone section. Like the 2006
curriculum, which outlined a broad-based curriculum, the learners’
experience and expertise is stratified at Basic, Standard, and
Advanced levels of ophthalmic training; but a new fourth level, “Very
Advanced,” corresponding to a “subspecialist” or “fellow”
level of training, has been added. Within each training level “Must
Know” items are identified by two asterisks (**). These levels of
standardization act as a foundation for developing clear and defined
milestones and provide benchmarks to gauge progress and performance.
(For a more detailed description of ICO Residency Curriculum
revisions, please see the Information for Educators.)
The
2006 curriculum was developed following thorough collection and
analysis of ophthalmology residency and training programs worldwide.
At that time, the ICO deliberately shifted from an “Apprenticeship
System” format, where content might be contingent on the bias of
trainers, to a curriculum-based system, providing an educational
framework where goals, expectations, knowledge base, competencies,
and technical training are carefully defined to initiate the training
process.
Customizable
Curriculum
By
being delivered online, the ICO Residency Curriculum is a “living
document,” which allows for adaptation and translatability. While
the ICO curriculum provides a standardized content outline for
ophthalmic training, it has been designed to be revised and modified,
with the precise local detail for implementation left to the region’s
educators.
Adaptability
is important because causes of blindness and reduced vision differ
widely, and curricular components essential in one geographical
locale may be less important in other regions. Similarly, economic
and social developments vary globally, and treatments and techniques
considered indispensable for one region might be unattainable or
unimportant for others. Standards may need to be modified according
to local priorities, goals, needs, culture, governmental policies,
social systems, financial constraints, varying use of allied care
personnel, and differing tangible resources.
The
ICO’s goal is to create a curriculum of enduring value for widely
different regions regardless of nationality, culture, medical market
maturity or socioeconomic status.
Future
Curricula Plans
The
ICO plans to use the addition of the “Very Advanced” level of
training as a basis to next define curricula for the ophthalmologic
subspecialties.
Other
ICO Educational Programs
The
ICO acts to support ophthalmic education, advocate quality eye care,
and advance scientific ophthalmology through support of ICO programs,
which include:
- World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC). First held in Brussels in 1857, the WOC is the longest continuing international meeting in all of medicine
- World Ophthalmology Education Colloquium. Started in 2008, this series of six symposia and keynote talks held during the WOC engages educators in redefining the most effective ways to teach.
- ICO International Examinations for Ophthalmologists. The ICO Examinations promote the excellence of eye care worldwide by encouraging individuals to acquire and maintain the highest standard of practice of ophthalmology and are the only worldwide medical specialty examinations
- ICO International Fellowships and Helmerich Fellowships. The ICO offers International Fellowships in duration of three months and one year. The International Fellowships were established to help young ophthalmologists from developing nations improve their practical skills and broaden their perspectives of ophthalmology. The Helmerich one-year fellowships offer advanced subspecialty training to ophthalmologists to help transmit new knowledge to the home country.
- Education Committees and Task Forces. The ICO has multinational committees and task forces focused on defining, disseminating and implementing curricula and guidelines involving educational programs for medical student education, residency training, directors of residency education, allied health personnel education, continuing medical education, subspecialty education, and emerging technologies for innovative ophthalmic education.
- Program Directors and Trainers Courses. The ICO sponsors courses on a local level that provide trainers with good practices from existing teaching models by sharing and modifying existing teaching tools and curricula materials.
- Regional Conferences for Ophthalmic Educators. The ICO organizes conferences for ophthalmic educators in collaboration with supranational and national societies. The Conferences cover modern educational theory, methods, and tools with interactive workshops and discussion groups.
Detailed
information about these and other ICO educational programs are
available on the ICO’s website: www.icoph.org or at: http://icoph.org/refocusing_education.html.
In
Appreciation
The
ICO gratefully acknowledges the efforts of the many individuals who
contributed to the development of the ICO Residency Curriculum. We
thank Andrew G. Lee, MD, for chairing this undertaking; the chairs
and members of the sixteen international committees for their vital
contributions to this work; and the reviewers of the curriculum for
their welcome expertise. (To see a complete list of committee chairs,
members, and reviewers, please refer to the Appendix.)
We
also recognize and are indebted to the original 2006 International
Task Force on Resident and Specialist Education in Ophthalmology. To
see a complete list of 2006 task force members, please go to:
http://icocurriculum.blogspot.com/2011/09/acknowledgement-of-contributions-to.html.
Finally,
we would like to acknowledge the editorial efforts of the following
individuals in making this work possible:
- Kathleen Miller, ICO Executive Director
- Christine Graham, ICO Education Coordinator
- Tina-Marie Gauthier, Medical Editor
Sincerely,
Bruce
Spivey, ICO President
Mark
O.M. Tso, MD, DSc, ICO Director for Education, 2000-2012
