Welcome to the Glaucoma Network (Glaucoma-NET) website

Glaucoma-NET was established in 2021 with the aim of preserving and maximising the sight of people with glaucoma by improving diagnosis and treatment.  This website enables Glaucoma-NET members to participate in online capacity-strengthening and training activities delivered by the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and its international partners.

It serves as a platform for hosting monthly Glaucoma-NET Decision Intervention Support Cluster (DISC) meetings and enhancing collaboration and sharing of information within and between all participating countries. It also provides information, resources and publications relevant to health workers who are involved in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with glaucoma globally.  We work closely with all stakeholders including Ministries of Health (MoH), patients, clinicians, researchers, and NGOs, to ensure lasting and sustainable impact.

Register to become a member of the Glaucoma-NET and to ensure that you can access Glaucoma-NET DISC sessions.

If an institution would like to have a LINK partner (see LINKS – ICEH (lshtm.ac.uk) for more information), please register your interest with Fatima Kyari through the Contact page.

Our Mission

We aim to strengthen the eye health system sustainably, through knowledge-sharing and bringing stakeholders together to plan and develop glaucoma services appropriate to each setting.

Background

Glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness worldwide. People with untreated glaucoma suffer from irreversible, progressive loss of sight. The disease is characterised by progressive loss of visual field, with pathological cupping of the optic disc and often (but not always) increased pressure in the eye. Early stages affect the field of vision and are often not noticed by the patient. The final stage is irreversible absolute blindness. 

Glaucoma treatment aims primarily to lower the intraocular pressure to a ‘safe’ level through eye drops and/or laser treatment and/or surgical interventions. 

The highest prevalence and incidence of glaucoma exists in sub-Saharan Africa and amongst people of African heritage living in other parts of the world.  The key requirements to tackle glaucoma blindness in these regions are early identification of people with glaucoma and effective long-term treatment.

Glaucoma-NET was established to lead, coordinate and support the efforts of glaucoma clinicians and Ministries of Health to improve the outcomes for glaucoma patients in LMICs. 

It is led by Fatima Kyari who works at the University of Abuja, Nigeria and at the International Centre for Eye Health, LSHTM. She is part of the LINKS Programme team at ICEH, who have extensive experience of establishing and running health partnerships and bringing together international networks of clinical and MoH teams to share knowledge, plan service delivery and improve outcomes for specific eye diseases. Fatima is also supported by other glaucoma experts in Nigeria, the UK, and Germany, including Winne Nolan, Mohammed Abdull, Farouk Garba, Heiko Philippin and Karinya Lewis.

Activities

The key activities for the Glaucoma-NET:

1. Glaucoma-NET service development programme – bring together key stakeholders at national and international levels to establish national frameworks, glaucoma programme guidelines, and action plans for the development of services
2. Development and implementation of Best Practice Toolkit – in 2021 the Toolkit for Glaucoma Management in sub-Saharan Africa was launched. The Glaucoma-NET national teams will develop and finalise the toolkit to individual national context and share.
3. Glaucoma Decision-Intervention Support Cluster for online case discussion and training sessions (Glaucoma-NET DISC) which is online monthly.
4. Glaucoma Clinical Training – includes centre twinning/partnerships for team training and sustainable development of services
5. GLAucoma Simulation-based Surgical (GLASS) training – scale up the surgical skills training programme, which includes a course for glaucoma surgery to support rapid acquisition of glaucoma surgical competence and improve patient safety. This training programme was developed through a partnership between ICEH@LSHTM and training institutions in Africa involved in Glaucoma-NET 
6. Collaborative multi-country research to address key issues in glaucoma management in LMICs 
7. Advocacy for improved resources for glaucoma care in LMICs, including patient groups.