Version three of vision charity RNIB’s Sight Loss Data Tool has been made available to the profession.
The aim of the dataset has been to help health professionals and local authorities improve and protect sight loss services.
Published last month, the online tool included a database of sight loss in the UK, including statistics on the number of people living with age-related macular degeneration and the total number of eye clinic appointments.
RNIB data analyst Emma Edwards said: ‘The sight loss data tool is the biggest collection of eye health datasets in the country. It is an excellent resource for anyone who works in the sight loss sector and is looking for facts and statistics about people living with, or at risk of, sight loss.
‘One of the many things the tool can be used for is to compare data from different districts. For example, you can see if there are more people living with glaucoma in Bristol than in Cardiff, or whether people living in Staffordshire have equal access to sight loss advisor services as people in Warwickshire.’
Version three of the tool has been 12 months in the making and brings together hundreds of pieces of data from publically available documents.
Sharon Schaffer, a development and vision strategy implementation manager in East London, said: ‘The Sight Loss Data Tool has proved indispensable in the Vision Strategy local implementation programme Thomas Pocklington Trust has been running in London over the past three years. I have used it in the Vision Strategy evidence base documents across East London. The evidence base was used as the foundation of the Vision Strategy, with a cross-sector stakeholder group was drawn together to address the gaps and join up local services and provision.’
