Flying Eye Hospital latest: Week three in Mongolia wraps up

Our ninth Flying Eye Hospital project in Mongolia has come to a close, preparing local eye teams for a future of saving sight. Week three, which focused on adult glaucoma, oculoplastics, and surgical retina sub-specialties, gave eye teams an opportunity to hone their surgical skills in some of the leading causes of blindness in the country.

It was also a chance for our President and CEO, Derek Hodkey, to welcome some special guests to the plane. They included US Ambassador Richard Buangan and representatives from the Mongolia Chamber of Commerce and the Mongolia Business Council.

For more than 40 years, Alcon has supported the Flying Eye Hospital with monetary donations through the Alcon Foundation and state-of-the-art ophthalmic equipment through Alcon Cares. During this project, Alcon expert biomedical engineers and Volunteer Faculty Qingyi Meng and Jingyi “Jane” Gao, led specialized workshops to train local engineers on operating and maintaining critical eye care equipment. Now when the plane leaves, the entire eye care team — doctors, nurses, and engineers — will be prepared for a future of saving sight.

But training didn’t just take place for biomedical engineers. Local surgeons also received hands-on practice to boost their surgical skills for treating blinding diseases like glaucoma. Volunteer Faculty and Chair of the Orbis Medical Advisory Committee, Dr. Malik Kahook, who volunteered in Mongolia, describes why our Flying Eye Hospital projects leave such a lasting impact.

“One of the great things about the Orbis program is that it has multiple levels that all feed into each other,” Dr. Kahook explains. “Initially there is a lot of practical knowledge gained from simulation and wet lab surgical maneuvers, prior to the program even starting. This is then followed by a clinic visit where we saw a significant number of patients to decide who might need surgical care, and we were able to talk about surgical techniques we would use on each patient.”

He says that by following each clinical step with the participants, he can better prepare them for surgery day. Speaking about a local surgeon he helped train, Dr. Kahook says, “I would do the maneuver, teach her how I was doing each, then pass along that skill set to her for the subsequent case. I can say that she is able to perform a glaucoma drainage device on her own at this stage which to me is one of the biggest successes of this trip.”

We are so proud of the incredible work we were able to accomplish in Mongolia thanks to the help of our supporters. We would like to give a huge thank you to Title Sponsor, the Alcon Foundation, for its continued support, and to Alcon Cares for donating sight saving equipment. Thanks to these contributions, and supporters like you, Mongolian communities can get the quality eye care they deserve.