Ophthalmology
Dr. John Onyango
HOD
The Department of Ophthalmology at Mbarara University of Science and Technology began its operation in the new building in July 2014 having operated in a two-room space at the MRRH out patients department since 1993. It was built with the support of the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) and its partners under the EU fund and officially commissioned by the Minister of Health Uganda and the EU ambassador to Uganda in November 2013.
Activities at the Department
We are involved in several key activities which can be classified in five broad categories
- Training
- Clinical services
- Research
- Projects/Collaborations
- Community Health promotion
TRAINING
The department has become an international hub for training ophthalmologists from mostly Africa and other parts of the world. Table below (alumni) shows the number of ophthalmologists trained at MUST by country. An alumni poster has been set up at the department to track all the colleagues passing through this department.
CLINICAL SERVICE DELIVERY
The number of patients we treat and operate upon continue to grow every year. In addition to the vast range of clinical services we offer, we added equipment for screening and treating diabetic eye disease, and trained one of our own faculty, Dr. Sam Ruvuma in Vitreo-Retinal surgery. We now have a state-of-the-art Optical Coherence Tomography Machine (OCT) for scanning retina and Argon laser machine for retina laser treatment.
RESEARCH
The department has a very strong research agenda to promote the culture of research. (See below)
COLLABORATIONS AND COMMUNITY PROJECTS
The department has initiated exciting projects that will have academic and clinical service delivery outputs as well as capacity building.
Collaboration: The department will continue to strengthen existing collaborations and seek to establish new ones to create opportunities for growth.
Outreach program: The department is currently conducting outreach screening for Diabetic Retinopathy and other blinding eye conditions in South Western Uganda with support from Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF).
Programmes
| Category | Duration | Study time |
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