On Thursday, 28th March I joined Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex who hosted a reception at St. James’s Palace for participants of the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium.
Alongside High Commissioners of various Commonwealth nations, we were there to celebrate the work of the Consortium.
The Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium is a group of eye health organisations from several Commonwealth countries working together to develop stronger eye health system and quality of eye care throughout the Commonwealth. Good quality eye care is, unfortunately, a scarce resource which affects the 285 million worldwide visually impaired people – which is why the work of this Consortium is so important.
In Malawi the Consortium is working on technology – such as apps – which will help doctors in Malawi to easily access world-class eye health knowledge in order to help their patients. I also learned about their Peek Vision scheme which has produced a smartphone camera adapter – Peek Retina – which allows a person to view and capture retinal images on their smartphone in order to better inform them on their eye health. A lot of great work has been achieved by the Consortium and I was very happy to support them in promoting good eye care worldwide.
You can find more on the work of the Eye Health Consortium here: http://cehc.lshtm.ac.uk/.