IACLE : The complete contact lens course has been completed!

“It has been an enormous project drawing together all the best contact lens information  -  the  lectures  were provided by the world’s leading contact lens  educators  and  edited  by  our  staff.   We are very excited to have completed  the  Course and proud to be able to offer this great resource to the contact lens world.”
 
Professor  Deborah  Sweeney  is speaking about the Contact Lens Course from the International  Association  of  Contact Lens Educators.  This week the final  Module  in  the 10-volume Course has been printed, and the Course is available to IACLE members, their students and all practitioners interested in contact lenses.
 
“Since  the  launch of the first Modules in 1997, the IACLE Course has been greeted  with enthusiasm by educators and industry.  The course has rapidly found  a  role  within  teaching  institutions  throughout the world”, said Professor Sweeney, President of IACLE.
 
Professor  Desmond Fonn, Vice President of IACLE and Editor-in-Chief of the Course,  adds,  “To  be  a good teacher you need to know what to teach, and have  the  right  materials  with  which to teach.  In the field of contact lenses,  there  is  immense  variation  in  the  standard  of knowledge and information   available   in  different  countries,  and  in  some  regions educational resources are limited.”
 
“The IACLE Contact Lens Course is an answer to this problem.”
 
The  Course  provides  a  comprehensive package of materials for delivering contact  lens  education,  with lectures, tutorials and quizzes, as well as outlines  and record forms for clinical, laboratory and practical sessions.
The Course consists of 10 modules:
      Module 1:   Anterior Segment of the Eye
      Module 2:   Introduction to Contact Lenses
      Module 3:   Contact Lens Fitting
      Module 4:   Examination Procedures for Contact Lens Patients
      Module 5:   Care and Maintenance of Contact Lenses
      Module 6:   The Cornea in Contact Lens Wear
      Module 7:   Contact Lens-Related Ocular Complications
      Module 8:   Special Contact Lens Fitting
      Module 9:   Special Topics
      Module 10:  Business Aspects of Contact Lens Practice
 
All  ten  modules  of  the  Course  are available as a CD-ROM set.  Each CD provides  the  educator  not  only  with  text,  but also with text slides, diagrams  and  colour  pictures, facilitating the easy delivery of accurate information in the classroom.
 
“We  have  included basic, intermediate and advanced levels of information, enabling  the  educator  to  choose  the  appropriate balance for their own classes”, said Dr Lewis Williams, principal writer for the Course.
 
Each  module  is  available to IACLE members at a cost determined by region
and  heavily  subsidized  by  industry.   The Course is useful as a library
resource,  and  can  also  be purchased by practitioners and students.  The Course is also provided free of charge to all active IACLE Resource Centres throughout the world.
 
“This  is  a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in contact lenses and contact lens practice”, said Professor Sweeney.  “Indeed, it has become apparent in recent years that the Course is a good textbook for students as well  as  being  an  excellent  reference to be taken with them into future,practice.   We  have  thus  recently  made the CD-ROM sets available to the students  of  IACLE  members  at  a  subsidised cost.  We are also happy to provide  the Course to any practitioner who would like it as a resource for their practice, again at a subsidised cost.”
 
IACLE  has  also  recognized  the  need  for  the  delivery of education in members’  native  languages.  This  has resulted in an enormous translation effort  to  make  the  Contact  Lens  Course  available  in five languages: English,  Spanish,  Chinese  (both  Simplified and Traditional), and Bahasa (Indonesian).  Through  the efforts of IACLE members, selected units of the course  have also been translated into Korean, Flemish and French.  Certain slides  of  the  Course  are  currently  being  translated  into German and Italian,  with  the  future  possibilities of Portuguese and Russian slides also being investigated.
 
“We  believe that the Course is having a significant impact on the standard of  international  contact  lens  education”,  said Professor Sweeney.  “We would  like  to  thank IACLE Vice President, Desmond Fonn, for his tireless efforts  in  leading  this  project,  and all the IACLE staff, particularly Lewis  Williams  our  principal  writer,  and teachers around the world who contributed.”
 
IACLE  is  an association of educators dedicated to raising the standard of contact  lens  education  and  promoting  the  safe  use  of contact lenses worldwide.   IACLE strives to increase the number of qualified contact lens educators,  improve  the  quality  of  contact lens  teaching  and provide educational  infrastructure,  thereby  increasing  the  number  of  skilled contact lens practitioners throughout the world.
 
The  IACLE Contact Lens Course and other programs are made possible through the generous  sponsorship  of  industry  including  CIBA Vision, Johnson & Johnson  Vision  Care  Inc, Bausch  &  Lomb,  AMO, CooperVision Inc, Alcon Laboratories, and Menicon Europe.
 
For  further  information  about ordering the IACLE Contact Lens Course, or for   information   about   other   IACLE  programs  and  resources,  visit www.iacle.org or contact the IACLE Secretariat on iacle@iacle.org
 
 
Source : communiqué de presse