Saving sight in new ways

Maintaining a high level of patient care throughout the pandemic was paramount to Orbis and our hospital partners. We had to be both innovative and nimble. In India, the team took emergency eye care to the doorsteps of patients using Vision Vans.

Orbis recently launched a free how-to manual for training hospitals to develop and run their own ophthalmic simulation training centres. Simulation training allows for complex surgical procedures to be learned using virtual reality technology, artificial eyes, and life-like manikins. In addition to minimizing person-to-person exposure during the pandemic, use of simulation devices has been proven to decrease complications and improve outcomes during an ophthalmologist’s early cases.

With funding from the Gay Lea Foundation and an anonymous donor, we launched a new project in Ghana to train local primary health care workers, many of them women, so they can deliver eye care and eye health education as part of their existing roles in the community. This approach eliminates many of the barriers women face accessing eye care and will ultimately empower them to act as catalysts in their communities to improve positive health-seeking behaviour and reduce unsafe and ineffective traditional health care practices among families.