Too poor to see, can't see to work, can't see to survive...
"...we want to invent Humanitarian Laser Eye Surgery"
Professor Dan Reinstein, London Vision Clinic Foundation*
By kind permission of the Associated Press / Gemunu Amarasinghe
Thirty years ago, inventing a painless 10 minute procedure that heals in 3 hours and eliminates total dependence on glasses seemed more like surreal sci-fi pipe-dream. Today, unaided vision is a reality for tens of millions of people who could already afford glasses. London Vision Clinic Foundation was established to invent a way of using this technology to provide a permanent solution to those who need it most. We want to invent Humanitarian Laser Eye Surgery.
Half of all treatable visual impairment and blindness in the developing world is due to the simplest of factors: uncorrected refractive error - short-sightedness, long-sightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia.
In developed countries refractive error is never an issue - everyone has spectacles. If you lose a pair, you buy another. But in developing countries more than two thirds of people are visually impaired for simply not possessing a pair of glasses. Unable to work. Unable to support their families for this most absurd of reasons.
Surprisingly, proportionally little effort has gone into addressing the worldwide issue of visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error - it is not classified as an eye disease like cataract. But more than half-a-billion are visually impaired because of this simple reason.
While the most obvious solution would be to improve distribution and affordability of spectacles, this has proven to be a difficult solution to implement in developing countries. For example, in Nepal, two-thirds of families live on less than $2 a day and half the population live on $1.25 a day. Even if provided with a pair of glasses, these may last less than a year in this environment. Still blind.
The life expectancy for someone who becomes blind in Nepal is less than three years. Nepalese society marginalizes and neglects the blind because of traditional beliefs that blindness is a curse or penance for sins in a previous life. Some even think blindness is contagious.
Almost 1,000 people every day desperately make their way to the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal in the hope of a cure for blindness. Many of these find the miracle of cataract and other disease reversing surgery there. But refractive error?
The London Vision Clinic Foundation has partnered with one of the leading humanitarian eye care organizations in the world: Cureblindness.org and the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) at the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology to try to develop the world's first model for comprehensively addressing refractive error in Nepal. This first project in Nepal will serve as a stepping stone to expanding the concept of addressing refractive error in the developing world with its far-reaching humanitarian applicability.
The project began in October 2009 when USAID's Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) awarded a $700,000 grant to support renovation of the former Tilganga outpatient clinic for purpose of housing the new center and for the procurement of some of the necessary commodities. Professor Dan Reinstein has been appointed as Director of Refractive Surgery on the Medical Advisory Board of Cureblindness.org. Professor Reinstein's unique expertise and experience as a leading authority in surgical training, the systematization of high-volume high quality laser refractive surgery and research that lead to the development of a laser based treatment for presbyopia makes a perfect fit with the underlying philosophy of the Himalayan Cataract Project: to eradicate preventable and curable blindness through high quality ophthalmic care, education and the establishment of a world-class eye care infrastructure that is financially self-sustaining through cost-recovery.
By kind permission of the Associated Press / Gemunu Amarasinghe
Dr. Sanduk Ruit and Dr. Geoff Tabin, started the Himalayan Cataract Project to fulfil their personal goals of eradicating as much unnecessary blindness in their lifetimes as possible. They have proven that hospital quality standards can be applied in poor areas lacking electricity and clean water. Their inventive approach and dogged perseverance made what 20 years ago was considered impossible - possible. Together with Professor Reinstein they have forged together this programme which has already begun with the expert training of selected Tilganga Eye Centre staff in at the London Vision Clinic in London with a view to starting laser eye surgery treatments for the first time in Nepal toward the end of 2010.
For more information, please contact foundation@londonvisionclinic.org.
* London Vision Clinic Foundation is a registered charity: Reg. Charity No. 1122593
