David Pyott discusses the impact of the Pyott Foundation Scholarships in Clinical Ophthalmology with Professor Baljean Dhillon.

The David and Molly Pyott Foundation funds scholarships for students admitted to the University of Edinburgh’s Clinical Ophthalmology masters programme. This online Master of Surgery (ChM) programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

The Pyott Foundation has funded Clinical Ophthalmology ChM students from Africa, South Asia, Caribbean Islands, Pacific Islands, Central and South America. Each scholarship covers the full tuition fee and funding towards a laptop and internet service.

So many of our Clinical Ophthalmology graduates from around the world already having benefited from the Foundation’s scholarships, so it was great to hear more about why this kind of education is so important to David.

You can watch the full interview below, or you can watch it on YouTube.

Transcript

Baljean Dhillon: Thank you very much, David, for making time to talk to us today. I’d like to begin just by asking you about what drew you in to global ophthalmology and in particular the training and education of prospective trainees on a worldwide basis.

David Pyott: Well, I have so many connections to eyecare and ophthalmology, mainly because I was CEO of Allergan for 17 years until 2015.

And in parallel, even when I joke when I was on the dark side with industry, I was actually involved in many of the global eye care charities, whether it be part of the foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. There was also the Pan American Ophthalmological Foundation, and what used to be known as the International Council of Ophthalmology’s Foundation, which we have actually recreated into a new organisation very recently at the beginning of 2021. And this new one is called the Ophthalmology Foundation, where I happen to be the president.

Now, as you can tell from maybe some of those dates, I’ve been involved in the charitable side for over 20 years. And I think the third piece is that I was very fortunate to have done rather well as an industrialist, as a businessman. And so now it’s time to give back.

And, of course, I’m uniquely positioned because I understand the world. I’ve lived in ten countries, I’ve worked in all continents except Latin America, but I do speak Spanish. So I feel very close and I really understand the need.

BD: Clearly there is a family connection. Your brother’s a consultant ophthalmologist, who I know well, and I know that you’re very much focussed on specific regions of the world. Could you just give us an idea of which parts of the world you think we should be focusing on in terms of training and education?

DP: Yeah. Well, first of all, on education, I ommitted to say that I really believe that industry can train ophthalmologists appropriately. But of course many countries have access to lower resources and so when you look at the list online of where really the David and Molly Pyott Foundation scholarships are available, the common denominator there is low- and middle-income countries. And we started that a number of years ago with Edinburgh, it worked really well.

And my wife and I have a particular focus now on where we see the greatest need of all, and that’s in sub-Saharan Africa. And so we created another six scholarships purely focussed on what’s known as the COECSA countries. These are the countries of central, eastern and southern Africa, and I’m sure we’ll talk a bit more about them during our conversation.

BD: Thanks, David. And just to continue that theme, if you were to give a message to potential applicants from one of the COECSA countries who is interested in the ChM and in particular your scholarships, what message would you give them?

DP: Well, I think this is a wonderful opportunity to take part in a course that is really flexible. We’ve seen from many comments and testimonials of your predecessors, assuming you apply, that they were able to continue their normal work. What was even more impressive, some of the ladies actually continued, you know, full family roles, rearing children, doing their job, and also pursuing the ChM all together.

That being said, of course, it still is not easy. You need to dedicate I think 10 to 15 hours per week. But of course, within your normal work cycle, you can modulate that. There’ll be periods where you have little time available and you’ll be falling behind a bit. But then there’s other times you can really accelerate.

And what we’ve heard from really all students is the the availability of materials to study 24 hours, seven days a week. Of course, that is ultimate customisation. Now, for tutoring and counselling, obviously you’re going to have to make yourself available during, I’ll call it somewhat ‘normal’ work hours on a European timezone. But depending where you are in the world, you can adapt – that’s normal. We all do work on world time clock these days.

And I think beyond just doing the course, what we hear is the ability not only to learn from the faculty in Edinburgh but also a great opportunity to learn from one another. I was particularly struck by stories saying, Well, I learned some great things from North America, but I also learned great things from colleagues, if you were to happen to be in Africa, from my colleagues in East Asia or my colleagues in the Andean countries in Latin America. So peer-to-peer is very important.

And I think the longer both the scholarship program and the course continues, I know that Bal Dhillon and I and others have the goal really of creating a regional network where prior attendees, prior graduates, can correspond in Zoom or WhatsApp or whatever with one another. And COECSA as an example, we want to create a regional network and this would apply to, you know, let’s call it the Indian subcontinent or Latin America. So I see really great, great opportunities to further improve in future.

BD: Absolutely. And that continuity, I think, is really key in terms of sustainability and looking to the future, David, what are your hopes and aspirations – notwithstanding the current crises in the world, covid-19 and the new post-covid world – what do you see as being the real opportunity here for the trainees interested in this course, in your scholarship especially?

DP: Well, of course, one could look with the rear-view mirror first and say, in a way, the Edinburgh course was ahead of its time being online. Now in the covid era, this seems totally normal. So I think, you know, those who were ahead of their times. And a good example would be Orbis with Cybersight, where they have really proctored surgical sessions from one country that might be in Latin America or in Indian subcontinent with colleagues assisting that particular case in the United States or in Scotland or in Germany or wherever.

But looking to the future. First of all, I would start with the recently published report in February. It was the Lancet Commission on Global Eye Health. Some of the numbers were particularly striking. 1.1 billion people on this planet with some form of vision impairment. Really when you look at the solves, the first two are just getting access to spectacles, which I think is getting better and better. But the other one, probably right behind it, is cataracts. And that, we all know, is so simple if you are properly trained and you have access to the right supplies.

So I think the next statistic I’d look to is, you know, when you start with North America, we have the privilege because I live in the United States, you know, 180 ophthalmologists per million people. In Western Europe, it’s much more like 85 ophthalmologists per million. And if I take Zambia as one example, and it would be totally in the same vein as the rest of the COECSA countries, it’s less than two ophthalmologists per million. In Zambia, there’s currently 70. Zambia is a great example because there are so many trainees in the system that if you project out five or seven years, there’ll be double the number of ophthalmologists in Zambia. So then the next opportunity is how do we help train those ophthalmologists, really deepen their skills in subspecialty areas. And of course, Edinburgh would be one, not the only one, but a good example.

Another good example would be another of the foundations where I happen to be the president is the Ophthalmology Foundation headquartered in the US, but with a very long, close collaboration and with a German charity called IOFF. So I should do a quick plug for them – ioff.org, go check it out. And we offer well over 70 three-month fellowships per year. Obviously, when trouble is possible again post-covid. And most of those fellowships you actually travel, unlike this programme, to typically the UK, to Germany, to the United States, but then many other countries in Europe and also say Australia would be a good example. So that’s a different kind of training where you actually attend in person three months at really one of the best institutions in the world.

So what really heartens me about the future of ophthalmology is different organisations doing different work. But time and time again I see the overlaps and of course we can very much each of these organisations focus on our own thing and also pass off to each other to help each other and further build this network of training and education for those that really need it, particularly in the low- and middle-income countries.

BD: Thanks, and on that optimistic note, I would like to thank you for your time, for the work, the tireless work that you’ve been doing over the years with the David & Molly Pyott Foundation and the support you’ve given to generations of trainees, ophthalmologists, and for all the work and the many, many projects that you’ve really generously supported, both at the University of Edinburgh and globally. And so behalf of all ophthalmologists on a worldwide basis, thank you very much.

DP: It has been our pleasure and it’s really wonderful to see some of the former scholarship awardees doing so well. There was an example of a young Brazilian ophthalmologist who won a very prestigious award called the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Medal. For those of you from foreign countries, you may not have heard of him. He was a writer in Edinburgh, but he invented Sherlock Holmes. So clearly our former students are the best of the best. And I think that’s what the Edinburgh course is all about. So it really is a great pleasure working with you.

BD: Oh, and likewise. David, thank you very much.

DP: Thank you.

Related

The David and Molly Pyott Foundation scholarships in ophthalmology

Online learning scholarships