Profile
- To equip participants with skills and knowledge on good practices and standard for glaucoma detection and referral.
- To allow participants to gain further insights on co-managing stable glaucoma patients with the tertiary public health institution.
What You'll Learn
The course, in its entirety, is designed to provide participants' comprehensive learning and hands-on experience on glaucoma detection and decision-making on referral through a hybrid pedagogy of in-depth lecture and hands-on in-person workshops. The course consists of 4 components:
i) Understand the pathogenesis, clinical signs and symptoms of glaucoma – a refresher.
ii) Community optometrists' role in detecting and referring glaucoma patients.
iii) Understand the treatment strategies of glaucoma and its complications and optometrists role in co-managing stable glaucoma patients from tertiary public health institution
iv) Examine real patients described in iii) above by using various clinical examination tools to monitor stable glaucoma cases and refer patients who are progressing.
The first component is a refresher of the pathogenesis of glaucoma, different types of glaucoma and the relevant symptoms and signs of glaucoma.
In the second component, participants will gain knowledge and insights on how to achieve accurate glaucoma diagnosis and referral (i.e. avoiding over referral to tertiary institutions). They will learn how to use different instruments in the diagnosis of glaucoma such as Goldmann Applanation Tonometry, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Humprey Visual Field interpretation.
In the third component, participants will gain rare and valuable insights on different treatment strategies for different types of glaucoma, for example, different types of eyedrops and various glaucoma surgeries such as iridotomy, trabeculectomy and their possible complications.
The fourth component is a workshop, which will cover a series of post glaucoma surgery and post-operative complication, including examination of the cornea, conjunctival, iris and anterior chamber, accompanied with OCT imaging of the optic nerve function and visual field assessment.
Minimum Entry Requirement
Diploma or degree graduates in optometry.