Educational project in Prague aims at improving health care in Eastern Europe

The Lions Ophthalmology Educational Center in Prague, Czech Republic, was opened in March 2002 in a newly constructed building adjacent to the Charles University Department of Ophthalmology, Vinohrady Teaching Hospital. Co-funded by Charles University and the Lions Club as part of its SightFirst program, the project is aimed at training young ophthalmologists in Central and Eastern Europe in specific subspecialties and addressing causes of avoidable vision impairment with a special focus on public health care services.“We provide specialized, short-term, intensive teaching programs that cover the main causes of avoidable vision impairment, such as glaucoma, AMD, diabetes, cataract. We also have a highly specialized course on low vision services, an area that is insufficiently developed in almost all countries globally, and definitely in Eastern Europe,” Ivo Kocur, MD, World Health Organization Medical Officer, said. In the early 2000s, he worked as an ophthalmologist at the Vinohrady Hospital university eye department led by Pavel Kuchynka, MD, coordinating the project to develop the Lions Ophthalmology Educational Center (LOEC) and, since its opening, has supported the department through jointly conducting international training programs.