Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology, Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai, India.
Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology, Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai, India; Centre for Eye Research Australia, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne; Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Indian J Ophthalmol. 2023 Jan;71(1):268-274. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1196_22.
Inadequacy of trained human resources is a critical challenge for eye-care delivery worldwide. Recognizing this, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness had identified the development of human resources as one of the focal areas in the global initiative "Vision 2020: The Right to Sight." The global action plan of the WHO also emphasized the need for trained workforce for ensuring comprehensive eye-care services. We aimed to present the uptake pattern of training programs offered at a high-volume training institute in India.
We did a retrospective analysis of data related to training programs conducted between 2000 and 2019. Trainees included ophthalmologists, allied ophthalmic personnel, and eye-care management professionals from all over the world. We analyzed the overall growth over the 20 years in the WHO regions. The uptake patterns were also analyzed across four segments of 5-year-periods by the type of training.
Overall, 9091 trainees from 118 countries attended training in over 40 courses that included long- and short-term clinical training for ophthalmologists (54.2%) and short-term training for eye-care managers (29.5%), allied ophthalmic personnel (6.2%), and eye-care technicians (10.2%). The majority of the trainees (81.3%) came from the Southeast Asian region, of which 87.4% were from India. Most (98.3%) of the trainees belonged to developing countries. We found an overall average growth of 4.8% in the training uptake across the four 5-year segments over the 20 years.
Comparatively better representation of trainees from the developing countries is encouraging as the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment is higher in those countries, warranting improved eye-care delivery. Given the strong influence of distance and associated costs of accessing training, the development of similar institutes in other regions might help enhance the global efforts to eliminate needless blindness.
人力资源培训不足是全球眼保健服务面临的一个关键挑战。世界卫生组织（WHO）和国际防盲协会认识到这一点，将人力资源开发确定为“视觉 2020：享有看见的权利”这一全球倡议的重点领域之一。世卫组织的全球行动计划还强调需要培训人员，以确保提供全面的眼保健服务。我们旨在介绍印度一家高容量培训机构提供的培训计划的参与模式。
我们对 2000 年至 2019 年期间开展的培训计划相关数据进行了回顾性分析。学员包括来自世界各地的眼科医生、眼科辅助人员和眼保健管理专业人员。我们分析了 20 年来全球各区域的总体增长情况。还按培训类型对四个 5 年期间段的参与模式进行了分析。
共有来自 118 个国家的 9091 名学员参加了 40 多种课程的培训，其中包括眼科医生的长期和短期临床培训（54.2%）以及眼保健管理人员（29.5%）、眼科辅助人员（6.2%）和眼保健技术人员（10.2%）的短期培训。大多数学员（81.3%）来自东南亚地区，其中 87.4%来自印度。大多数（98.3%）学员来自发展中国家。我们发现，在 20 年的四个 5 年期间段中，培训参与率总体平均增长了 4.8%。
发展中国家学员的代表性相对较好，令人鼓舞，因为这些国家的失明和视力损害患病率较高，需要改善眼保健服务。鉴于距离的强烈影响以及获得培训的相关费用，在其他地区建立类似的机构可能有助于加强消除不必要失明的全球努力。
