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Global need for vision care indicates need for more optometrists
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CHICAGO – A “staggering number” of additional optometrists are needed to provide adequate eye care services around the world, according to a presenter here at the World Council of Optometry annual meeting.
Luigi Bilotto, OD, of the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE), said there are currently 300,000 optometrists globally, half of whom are located in the developing world. However, more than 1 million are necessary, he said.
“The lack of the necessary workforce speaks loudly to the necessity to develop optometry,” Dr. Bilotto said.
The core strategies of the ICEE focus on human resource development, service development, social entrepreneurship, and research and development.
According to Dr. Bilotto, there are 16 optometry programs in Africa, 88 in Asia Pacific, 25 in Eastern Mediterranean, 114 in Europe and 30 in Latin America.
In collaboration with Optometry Giving Sight, Sight Savers and two local institutions, ICEE implemented an optometry school in Malawi in 2008. “The first graduates will come out this year,” Dr. Bilotto said.
“We’ve implemented a school in Mozambique in 2009 that will serve to create the work force in the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa, and the first graduates come out in December 2012,” he continued.
A 2-year program was implemented in Eritrea in 2009 for optometric technicians. “We developed this to address this particular country’s needs,” Dr. Bilotto said. “They aim to achieve the VISION 2020 targets in 2015. A full program will start in the next year or so.”
ICEE supports an optometry school in Mali, established in 2009, which aims to address French West Africa, he said. “It is a 3-year program that will produce optometric technicians, with an additional 2 years to produce optometrists,” he said. “Their first graduates came out in December.”
ICEE is collaborating in the development of optometry schools in Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Vietnam, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
“Our involvement is at different levels along the process, starting from the situational analysis, to assess the needs and planning subsequent development; advocacy, which is reaching out to government, getting their buy-in, planning future employment, legislating and regulating them – a necessary step; implementation, which involves curriculum development, resource mobilization, then academic roll-out and support we provide to the schools; and service development, an essential step following the creation of the program.
“We now have an issue in Mali where we have four graduates who are without work,” Dr. Bilotto continued. “That affects the future attraction of the program of optometry in that region.”