National Eye Health Week (22-28 September) is an opportunity to highlight the crucial role of ever more innovative ophthalmology in quickly detecting vision issues as well as underlying systemic health conditions

That is the view of formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health which, with its own ophthalmology innovation call, is supporting the public health campaign’s commitment to promoting the role of public services in improving vision.

The organisation points to fresh, breakthrough initiatives like the Scottish Collaborative Optometry-Ophthalmology Network e-research (SCONe) which aims to build a Scotland-wide retinal image resource for innovation in eye research, healthcare, and education.

InnoScot Health has supported and worked with innovators on solutions including the iGrading platform, a diabetic retinopathy screening tool developed alongside NHS Grampian and the University of Aberdeen, and Peekaboo Vision, an app created by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

It believes that a succession of groundbreaking innovations could be in the pipeline if the right support and encouragement is offered, with National Eye Health Week (NEHW) providing essential inspiration for NHS Scotland staff looking to focus on turning their ideas into reality.

This year's NEHW will take place under an inclusive theme of ‘Vision Matters’ — but organisers Eye Health UK insist that “more than 2 million people in the UK are living with sight loss that is severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives”.

In 2023, Sight Scotland reported that approximately 180,000 to 183,000 people were living with significant sight loss across the country with projections indicating that this number was expected to rise to around 214,000 by 2030 and double to almost 400,000 by 2031, driven by issues such as increasing rates of sight-threatening conditions like diabetes.

Formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health believes that the healthcare workforce can not only share the NEHW message but also target innovative solutions after £2m in Scottish Government funding was allocated last year to help reduce waiting times in ophthalmology.

Part of this means improved delivery of higher volume cataract surgery in operating theatres across Scotland, but also further analysing how developments such as AI innovation in eye health can detect eye conditions in seconds.

Head of Innovation at InnoScot Health, Robert Rea insists that NHS Scotland’s workforce can capitalise on that “by making a vital contribution to how the health service continues to mitigate and adapt to heightened ophthalmic pressures through progressive, forward-thinking innovation”.

He said: “National Eye Health Week represents an opportune moment to empower and accelerate innovative thinking across NHS Scotland. From AI to virtual reality, and harnessing existing facilities for optimal outcomes, there is so much exciting potential.

“Underpinned by NEHW’s ‘vision matters’ message and the need to heighten awareness, we believe that the country’s expert ophthalmologists, alongside those in support roles such as ophthalmic nurses and optometrists, are best placed to identify unmet medical needs.

“They know where innovative thinking can prove most effective both in the short and long-term — they can identify where the most pressing needs are likely to lie both today and tomorrow.

“Finding the right partner to assist them in accelerating their great ideas – including the potential to better detect other conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease – can be crucial to solving those needs.”

He added: “Each day of NEHW will focus on a different theme: primary eye care services, children’s eye health, sports vision, eyes at work, ageing eyes, and live well to see well.

“For Scotland’s ophthalmologists, that represents inspiration in so many areas.”

Encouraging NHS Scotland’s diverse workforce to come up with new ideas that achieve better outcomes in ophthalmology is essential and is at the heart of InnoScot Health’s ophthalmology innovation call.

The call offers a package of support to health and social care staff, including advice and guidance in such areas as intellectual property protection, regulation, funding, project management, and commercialisation.