Alcon enhances skill courses with innovative phaco machines

  • 26 Oct 2023
  • RCOphth

Global leader in eye care, Alcon is collaborating with the college to provide educational opportunities for trainees on five innovative phaco machines, ensuring trainees at our surgical skills centre have access to the latest technology.

Five Centurion® Vision Systems with Active Sentry® have been installed at the college. Trainees and ophthalmologists can now practice their surgical techniques using state-of-the-art techniques in the safety of a simulated setting.

They form part of the college’s simulation suite which is used by 500 trainees every year to master skills before in vivo training, for experienced ophthalmologists to refine their surgical proficiency and for train-the-trainer tuition.

We introduced them in recent weeks during a series of two-day courses where trainees had the opportunity to practise simulated cataract surgery training.

Larry Benjamin, one of the course trainers, commented: “The new machine has a very good way of controlling the pressure inside the eye, giving a stable operating scenario – it’s a really beautiful machine to use. Very high-tech and designed with ease in mind.”

”It’s nice to have a range of machines for training use and it’s good to give the trainees an experience of each.”

The phaco machine is a sophisticated device used in a phacoemulsification, a surgical procedure to remove cataracts. Alcon support programmes that provide learning opportunities for eye care professionals around the globe, as part of their social impact and sustainability strategy. Our trainees will benefit from this collaboration; and we are grateful to Alcon for their support.