Message from the PAOF Chair

My Dear Colleagues,

This is a special year for the world of Ophthalmology:  2020.  I remember I was finishing fellowship training and my professors were talking about the World Health Organization (WHO) launching an ambitious program in 1999 called Vision 2020.  The mission of this program outlined by the WHO “…VISION 2020 Global Initiative is to eliminate the main causes of all preventable and treatable blindness as a public health issue by the year 2020. 

The WHO brought together more than 20 international non-governmental organizations involved in eye care and prevention and management of blindness that comprise the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). VISION 2020 is a partnership that provides guidance, technical and resource support to countries that have formally adopted its agenda.”

This is a good example of the Synergistic Effect that I wrote about last year.  Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.  Great things can happen when all these organizations work together toward a common goal.

Now it is the year 2020 and we look at all the resolutions that we would like to accomplish by this year and all the years moving ahead. We agree and commit to the WHO’s mission to reduce and/or eliminate preventable blindness.  We would like to provide continuing education of the latest advances and technologies that will ultimately result in improved patient care. We would like to provide opportunities for cultural exchange for increased awareness and understanding.

Please join us to help fulfill the Pan-American’s mission of advanced training, continuing education and cultural exchange!

Jorge E. Valdez MD PhD
PAOF Chair of the Board