The World Health Organization estimates that the 285 million people visually impaired worldwide includes 39 million who are blind and 246 million who have low vision. About 90 percent of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries and 80 percent of all cases of visual impairment can be avoided or cured.
Through the partnering agreement, UC Davis specialists in telemedicine, information technology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, and nursing are working with Orbis, a leading global NGO to eliminate blindness by expanding the use of telemedicine technology to help treat and prevent blindness in the developing world.
UC Davis will work with Orbis on staff development, fellowships, and programs related to the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, a fully equipped mobile teaching hospital on board a DC-10 jet. Also, trainees will have hands on training in the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology Simulation Center and take part in the Orbis’s telehealth program that will provide real-time surgical demonstrations.
The project will also establish telehealth links to transmit live broadcasts of eye surgeries at UC Davis to virtual classrooms in remote regions in the developing world. Live e-consultations will be explored with partners around the world to further Orbis’s ongoing efforts to establish an open-source ophthalmic EMR system, to help develop a more robust e-health infrastructure, provide access to increased decision-making support, and offer researchers a wealth of global data.
“Advances in telecommunications technologies and broadband capacity in developing countries has created new opportunities to improve training for physicians, nurses, and other members of the healthcare team, and expanded access to healthcare services among the world’s most vulnerable populations,” said Thomas Nesbitt, Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Technologies and Alliances at UC Davis.