Inevitable changes in eye care: Are we ready?

In Davos, Switzerland, every year, political leaders, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, innovators and thinkers assemble to discuss the world’s big issues. This year’s theme is about how technologies have transformed our world. We have moved from the mainframe computer we were using at Johns Hopkins 35 years ago to PC and now to cell phone in nearly every hand.

Any national or institutional development plan crafted about five years ago is probably already outdated. To plan without taking into account the technology of tomorrow is to plan to fail even before the plan has taken off. In addition, the institution or nation stands a good chance of becoming the dumping ground and cemetery for discarded items of equipment.

How does this change in technology relate to eye care and eye care professionals in our country? The eye care professionals, like professionals in many other fields, must begin to look at the available and possible technologies and gradually modify their curricula to reflect the new developments if they are to continue to be relevant. In Nigeria, despite the number of years spent in the university, Optometrists spend most of their time doing refractions and prescribing glasses.

And there is an awful lot of work in this field. About 50 per cent or more of avoidable blindness, is attributable to uncorrected refractive errors. The main challenge being access and costs barriers.

Traditional diagnostic equipment is highly cumbersome, expensive, and cannot easily cope with the job. However technology has come to the rescue.

It has simplified and demystified the refraction testing process. I predict that the cell phone and the 3D technology may make lenses easily available to the end users in the next 10 years.

Cataract is the leading cause of reversible blindness in Nigeria. About 40 years ago, the process of removing cataract was cumbersome. We had to keep patients in bed for one week prior to the surgery; they had to lie on their back for about five days and had to be on a controlled diet. Now we do sutureless surgery and the patient goes home soon after surgery.

It is even possible for him to drive his car back home. Yet the phaco surgery equipment of today is bulky and requires a long learning curve. With tomorrow’s technology, the itinerant surgeon of the couching days may be back at work, dealing with the cataract in the patient’s own home environment, thereby removing the most important barrier to uptake of surgery after costs. And bet you, even the ophthalmologist’s presence may be limited to just a few minutes.

Technology is going to redefine the professions. A recent study from Oxford University predicted that about 50 per cent of U.S. jobs would be computerised in the next 10 to 20 years. Even lawyers, doctors, nurses, laboratory technologists are under threat from technology. Our universities and medical institutions must establish a department of applied technology devoted to the application of emerging technologies to solving old problems and meeting new challenges. Those who fail to make the necessary change will go under like the dinosaurs, who became extinct because they failed to adapt to their changing environment.

Today is World Glaucoma Day, please, ensure you have full eye examination to safe yourself from irreversible blindness.