InnoScot Health believes that World Sight Day (Thursday 12 October) represents a great reminder for NHS Scotland staff to eye fresh opportunities for ophthalmic innovation in the workplace.

This year, World Sight Day is aiming to focus global attention on the importance of good eye health habits in working environments by encouraging and promoting the wellbeing, safety, and productivity of millions of employees.

Organisers the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) want to ensure that “eye care is available, accessible, and affordable to all” while urging everyone in optics to get behind the campaign and help spread the word.

With recovery, renewal, and transformation to the fore for NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government is providing funding specifically earmarked for wellbeing resources for Health and Social Care staff – increased substantially in financial year 21/22 to £12 million.

This is in addition to the wide range of employee wellbeing support provided by health boards, councils, and other social care providers.

However, InnoScot Health wants to take that one step further – not only urging staff and Scotland’s wider population to take advantage of the country’s free universal NHS funded eye examinations, but also encouraging NHS Scotland’s 160,000-strong workforce to identify and submit forward-thinking ophthalmic ideas for the improvement of patient outcomes.

Formal NHS partner InnoScot Health insists that NHS Scotland’s workforce can be instrumental in spreading the World Sight Day message but can also make a vital contribution to how the health service mitigates and adapts to heightened ophthalmic pressures through targeted innovation that supports strengthening and meaningful change in this priority area.

Encouraging NHS Scotland’s diverse workforce to come up with new ideas that achieve better outcomes in pressured ophthalmology is at the heart of InnoScot Health’s timely 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, to a value of £25,000 initially.

Head of Innovation at InnoScot Health, Robert Rea said: “It is vital that everyone has their eyes regularly examined.

“An NHS eye examination in Scotland is more than just a sight test – it provides a general eye health check that can detect early signs of sight-threatening conditions and some general medical conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and more.

“World Sight Day promotes that message for the country’s workers – but it is also an opportunity to underline our collective vision for high-quality, inclusive eyecare and better patient outcomes.

“We believe NHS Scotland’s expert ophthalmologists, alongside those in support roles, are best placed to identify where unmet medical needs and bottlenecks in clinical ophthalmology lie while potentially offering solutions.

“They encounter those issues every day so know best where innovative thinking can prove most effective.

“Of course, such a prospect can prove daunting amid day to day demands on their time and uncertainty around where to begin.

“InnoScot Health is a collaborative partner that helps NHS Scotland take forward their ideas by offering its support and expertise – right through the development cycle.

“We are highly experienced in helping clinical entrepreneurs find their way and achieve their ambitions in rapidly evolving ophthalmology.”

Innovative new ophthalmic facilities continue to be introduced across Scotland. Yet, existing facilities can be just as promising for encouraging more efficient ways of working.

In April this year, ophthalmologists based at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness moved into the new, purpose-built National Treatment Centre – Highland (NTC-H).

The NTC-H building hosts the entire Eye Care Service and additional operating capacity for Ophthalmology Services. There are three operating theatres for Ophthalmology allowing for high volume cataract surgery and management of ocular conditions, with an emphasis on new imaging technology allowing for remote and virtual working.

Last year, NHS Tayside’s ophthalmology service was able to double the number of cataract surgical procedures that could be carried out daily thanks to ground-breaking ideation.

The improvements by the ophthalmology team at Ninewells Hospital have included the ability to carry out simultaneous bilateral surgery on patients with cataracts in both eyes, turning Tayside into the best performing health board in Scotland for cataract surgery.

Robert continued: “In response to our call, we have already seen new ways of improving technology for retinal disease diagnosis, fresh approaches to digital therapy for eye conditions, and better management of patients undergoing cataract surgery.

“On World Sight, just taking a little time to think about how you might improve your workplace could make a massive difference to the lives of both NHS Scotland patients and clinicians.

“Innovation and the right advice to support it is key to unlocking that improvement.”

Over the past 20 years, InnoScot Health has had a strong record in ophthalmic innovation. It has supported and worked with NHS innovators on Peekaboo Vision, an app created by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; Multifocal Retinal Imager, developed in collaboration with Wideblue; and the iGrading platform, a diabetic retinopathy screening tool developed alongside NHS Grampian and the University of Aberdeen.