Surgery on the Orbis airplane with local observers
The impact of this training and care is staggering. In the past five years alone, they include more than:- 174,000 trainings of medical personnel
- 15.7 million eye screenings and examinations, 11 million of these on children
- 386,000 eye surgeries/laser procedures
- 28.6 million medical/optical treatments.
Orbis patient undergoing exam in Ethiopia
Orbis's key asset is the more than 400 volunteer faculty members who conduct many of the training sessions and perform examinations and surgeries in places where their expertise is needed. These volunteers include many professors from leading medical schools, providing Orbis with not just skilled physicians, but the world's true experts. The internet has greatly helped this faculty's ability to provide training around the world. Through Cybersight, volunteers such as Dr. Daniel Neely can train and mentor doctors around the world, helping them get the skills they need to address vision problems in their local communities.Dr. Daniel Neely with a patient in Ethiopia
Lenovo supports Orbis through technology donations, notably with equipment for the Cybersight program. By providing state-of-the-art monitors and cameras, remote training and collaboration is both easier and more effective. 'You don't read a book and become an expert,' Neely said. 'Cybersight allows doctors to connect with a truly global network of professionals.' (Neely, a professor of Ophthalmology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, discusses Cybersight in more detail here.) The volunteer faculty also conduct much-needed clinics in every corner of the globe, often with help from the Flying Eye Hospital, Orbis' MD-10 airplane equipped with facilities for surgery and training. This state-of-the art mobile hospital allows Orbis to bring its world-class volunteer doctors to remote locations to conduct eye screenings, treatments, and even surgeries, all while allowing local medical professionals to observe and learn these same procedures.Lecture room of the Orbis airplane
Dr. Douglas Fredrick has been traveling to conduct such clinics for 20 years. His day job is professor of ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, yet he finds great satisfaction and meaning in the impact of the training programs he works on through Orbis. (Fredrick also makes an appearance in this trailer for a film about Orbis hosted by Cindy Crawford.)Dr. Douglas Frederick with a patient in Ethiopia
'You know the skills you are helping to provide will be multiplied many fold,' Fredrick said. 'The people you work with will then bring that same level of care to hundreds of people over the course of their careers. And I am proud of how Orbis is really diligent in following up three months after any surgery to ensure everything went well.' Fredrick took his first trip with Orbis in 1998, going to a hospital in Yangoon, Myanmar, to teach a special course on treating infants and children with cataracts, a more specialized procedure than cataracts in adults. His first patient, a child with Down syndrome and cataracts, was known at the program as 'Green Pants,' as he always had a pair of green trousers. Fredrick performed the surgery, which he thought went well, and then, when the program was over, went home. 'The following year I went back to Yangoon with Orbis,' he said. 'Usually we don't see any of the same people more than once because many come hundreds of miles to attend a clinic. But in this case, his father brought Green Pants back, and he was running around playing, in thick glasses, but seeing just fine. The father was a wood carver, and he made a statuette of a hand cradling an eye. He gave it to me and said this was his baby's eye and this is your hand saving my baby's eye. That really put the hook in deep, and Orbis has been an important part of my life ever since.' Want to help? Learn more about Orbis International here.Attachments
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Lenovo Group Limited published this content on 12 February 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 February 2019 15:09:05 UTC