Dr. Michael and Jessica Feilmeier from the Univ. of Nebraska, Global Blindness Prevention Division (Opening Eyes Curing Blindness) have established a web site that will help coordinate the actions of organizations and individuals (volunteers) working in ophthalmology in developing world locations. The idea is to get everyone — ophthalmic organizations, individuals, etc. aware of each other and who is doing what where. As I have mentioned previously there is often an amazing lack of information / coordination as to who is doing what and where in the same country / region. Some times two different volunteer surgical groups are working 20 miles away from each other, only several weeks apart and neither knows the other exists. They might be offering different services which could complement each other — who is doing ocular plastics, who is bringing a diode laser, who has vitrectomy capacity, etc. Better coordination / communication would help determine what assistance may be needed, who needs what supplies, who are the current ophthalmic players in a certain country / area. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel for every volunteer group heading off to a developing world country. Many countries have active local ophthalmic humanitarian NGO’s that often could be of help with any planning, etc. Not to undermine / ignore the local ophthalmic infrastructure is helpful. I would encourage you to have a look at their (Feilmeier) web sites and their information about the country you will be visiting. Sign up. Apparently more details about this will shortly be available on the Ophthalmic News & Education Network (ONE) American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) website.
The AAO / Rotary Host An Ophthalmologist program this year had a total of nine guests hailing from Togo, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Georgia, Uzbekistan, India, and the Ivory Coast. None of these young ophthalmologists had been to the States or the Academy previously. They all talked at the Learning Lounge and shared a little about their countries / their eye situation / outreach, etc. This ongoing program now has over 90 alumni from 36 developing world countries. Many of our alumni are doing great work in the prevention / reduction of blindness worldwide and are now leaders with IABP, Vision2020 The Right To Sight, national eye societies, eye institutes, etc.
If anyone wants to learn more about this joint AAO – Rotary program and might be interested in sponsoring a young ophthalmologist to next years Academy, please contact Annamarie Hastings <[email protected]> with the AAO.