Benguela: With more than 200 participants expected, including ophthalmology specialists from Brazil, Cape Verde, Spain, and Mozambique, the seventh edition of the Scientific Conference of the Benguela Ophthalmological Center (COB) will take place from August 13 to 15, under the motto 'Challenges of ophthalmology training in the current context'.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the Scientific Conferences of the Benguela Ophthalmological Center are a regular event aimed at discussing topics relevant to the public eye health institution and the country. It involves physicians, specialty interns, nurses, medical students, and invited specialists from other institutions within the country and abroad.
The 7th edition of this scientific event, commemorating the 17th anniversary of the Benguela Ophthalmological Center, proposes a reflection on how to adapt ophthalmology training in the country to the levels and profiles of more advanced settings, such as Brazil and Spain. This includes the participation of six international speakers who will attend both in-person and online.
The conference will be preceded by the 1st Nursing Workshop and pre-conference courses, covering topics such as 'Ophthalmological procedures in nursing', 'Experimental cataract surgery', 'OCT in retina and glaucoma', and 'Ocular ultrasound'.
At a press conference, COB director-general and president of the VII Scientific Conference, Kapucula Abreu Ant³nio, highlighted the importance of the event. It serves to demonstrate the results of medical research into the main eye diseases and allows discussions with specialists from other national and international hospital units.
Kapucula Abreu Ant³nio expressed the expectation to establish cooperation protocols with other similar institutions to promote improvements in surgical treatment and medical and drug assistance to patients. He emphasized the need for doctors to study prevalent pathologies, citing the case of many 10-year-old patients suffering from glaucoma.
The participation of both national doctors, mainly from Benguela, Luanda, and Cabinda, and foreign specialists reflects the center's focus on training amid a shortage of human resources. Spanish doctor Alejandro Calvo Anbarro's participation will be valuable, as he addresses accessibility, orientation, mobility, and daily living activities for people with visual impairments.
The center is open to the possibility of cooperating with the Spanish ophthalmologist in training special education teachers in Benguela to better support blind and deaf students.
Training more specialist doctors, sub-specialists, and nurses in ophthalmology is a challenge for the Benguela Ophthalmological Center. The focus is to train technicians at all levels and distribute them to other hospital units in Benguela province to track patients before they arrive at the COB.
The conference will also cover roundtables on "Formative Reflection in Ophthalmology" and "Albinism in a Multidisciplinary Approach", alongside panels on "Pediatric Ophthalmology", "Epidemiological Profile of Patients Operated for Congenital Cataracts at the COB", and other relevant topics.
Opened in 2008 on the grounds of the Benguela General Hospital, the Benguela Ophthalmological Center is dedicated to providing eye health services to the population and training specialists in ophthalmology. With the capacity to perform an average of 150 surgeries monthly, the center serves approximately 3,000 patients and employs eight physicians.
