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From the WGA Executive Office
Kuldev Singh, MD MPH, Executive Vice President, World Glaucoma Association
By the time you receive this communication, the World Glaucoma Congress (WGC) to be held in Paris from June 29th through July 2nd 2011 will have come and gone. When one thinks of the WGA, the Congress held every two years in different regions of the world on a rotating basis, as well as the International Glaucoma Review, come to mind as the two most important contributions of the Association. Yet the WGA represents much more than a congress and a journal. A colleague recently asked me to summarize some of the other projects undertaken by the WGA. I mentioned our consensus meetings that have resulted in seven books with an eighth on glaucoma progression to be released shortly, and the WGA Guidelines on the Design and Reporting of Glaucoma Surgical Trials which is available free of charge on our website and is considered by many to be the gold standard reference document on this subject. The WGA organized and funded African Glaucoma Summit held in Accra, Ghana last year was the most significant attempt by any global health care organization to target the devastating effects of glaucomatous disease on this continent. World Glaucoma Week continues to grow in influence, drawing an increasing number of advocates who support our cause. The WGA Research Awards recognize translational scientific contributions in the glaucoma arena. In addition to working in support of our 77 member glaucoma societies, the WGA is committed to helping in the development of new national and regional societies, and is currently assisting approximately twenty groups of ophthalmologists, mostly in developing regions of the world, to create societies that are eligible for WGA membership. In all, we reach out to approximately 11,000 glaucoma practitioners, educators and scientists worldwide.
While the WGA could easily be satisfied with what has been accomplished to date, the best is, without a doubt, yet to come. On April 30th, 2011, the Board of Governors approved the WGA Strategic Plan following a formal process that took over one year to complete and involved glaucoma leaders from throughout the world. The process, led by Arthur Sit from the United States and Tarek Shaarawy from Switzerland, was facilitated by Tecker Consultants, a firm that specializes in strategic planning for large organizations. The core purpose of the WGA, as identified in the process, is to eliminate glaucoma-related disability worldwide. The Strategic Plan outlines a ten-year vision, three- to five-year priorities as well as strategies to maximize the chances of accomplishing our substantial goals. We are deeply indebted to all who participated in the strategic planning effort, particularly Arthur and Tarek for their extraordinary leadership throughout the process. The WGA Strategic Plan will soon be available on our website at www.worldglaucoma.org.
