Session 2: Retinoblastoma Fellowships (WD-RBF)
Ashwin Mallipatna, MD, leader of the 8th edition AJCC TNMH staging system) will lead this session. ISOO members will help define basic educational standards for our retinoblastoma fellows and create a strategy to support their work as they return to their underserved countries.
Two sessions of the first working day highlighted the need for international RB outreach from our specialty. It became clear that as many as 7,000 children were dying due to lack of early diagnosis and prompt curative treatment. We learned that many centers are trying to help on their own. We learned that reaching and treating these children will take time, dedication, and funding.
During that meeting, Paul T. Finger, MD challenged the ISOO community to provide low-cost retinoblastoma fellowship education for young, aspiring ophthalmologists from unserved countries and underserves areas. He believes that unless we seed each unserved country with at least one advocate, children in those countries have no chance. Therefore, with the support of The Eye Cancer Foundation, The International Council of Ophthalmology, and The Children's Eye Cancer Foundation of Germany, we are currently training retinoblastoma fellows in India, Jordan, Mexico, Iran, China, Canada, Finland, France, Sweden, the UK and the USA. The Eye Cancer Foundation and Princess Margaret Cancer Center have funded training for over 8 RB fellows, as well as 12 additional scholarships yet-to-be-awarded through a new ECF-ICO-KAK combined effort. Most recently, Hans Grossniklaus has agreed to train 1 ECF funded fellow per year. These fellows will focus on RB ophthalmic pathology for the purpose of providing supportive pathology services to aid in this initiative.
Colleagues, this will be a long process. However, we are committed to place at least 20 functioning eye cancer specialists in 20 unserved countries by the year 2020. And that is just the beginning!
Ashwin Mallipatna, MD, leader of the 8th edition AJCC TNMH staging system) will lead this session. ISOO members will help define basic educational standards for our retinoblastoma fellows and create a strategy to support their work as they return to their underserved countries.
Two sessions of the first working day highlighted the need for international RB outreach from our specialty. It became clear that as many as 7,000 children were dying due to lack of early diagnosis and prompt curative treatment. We learned that many centers are trying to help on their own. We learned that reaching and treating these children will take time, dedication, and funding.
During that meeting, Paul T. Finger, MD challenged the ISOO community to provide low-cost retinoblastoma fellowship education for young, aspiring ophthalmologists from unserved countries and underserves areas. He believes that unless we seed each unserved country with at least one advocate, children in those countries have no chance. Therefore, with the support of The Eye Cancer Foundation, The International Council of Ophthalmology, and The Children's Eye Cancer Foundation of Germany, we are currently training retinoblastoma fellows in India, Jordan, Mexico, Iran, China, Canada, Finland, France, Sweden, the UK and the USA. The Eye Cancer Foundation and Princess Margaret Cancer Center have funded training for over 8 RB fellows, as well as 12 additional scholarships yet-to-be-awarded through a new ECF-ICO-KAK combined effort. Most recently, Hans Grossniklaus has agreed to train 1 ECF funded fellow per year. These fellows will focus on RB ophthalmic pathology for the purpose of providing supportive pathology services to aid in this initiative.
Colleagues, this will be a long process. However, we are committed to place at least 20 functioning eye cancer specialists in 20 unserved countries by the year 2020. And that is just the beginning!
Convenor: Dr. Ashwin Mallipatna
Dr. Ashwin Mallipatna is a pediatric ophthalmologist specialized in the management of retinoblastoma at Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide. Ashwin, who was the section leader of AJCC-UICC staging initiative, offers a depth of experience with multicenter international cooperation and will convene this session. This session will include discussions regarding the potential, problems and solutions for tailor-made RB fellowships that maintain a basic standard of care in every corner of the world. The first fellows will work towards the goal of reducing RB related mortality in their unserved or underserved countries. |