This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Brazilian model ‘ideal’ to follow to reduce blindness in the general population
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Education, research, guidelines, advocacy and partnerships with industry and government are the keys to slowing the rates of blindness and visual impairment globally, said Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, PhD, MBA.
“We, ophthalmologists, are losing the war in many parts of the world,” Dr. Belfort said here at the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis lecture during the Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology.
Ophthalmologists need “to return to professionalism, which demands placing the interests of patients first and also above those of the physician. Physicians must reaffirm and then act,” he said. “Look at Brazil. What is the Brazilian experience? It is a partnership with universities; the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology; industry, specifically Alcon and Allergan; and the work of Lions, Rotary and other similar groups.”
An example of this collaboration, Dr. Belfort said, was country-wide screening and treatment. Ophthalmologists were able to screen 5,000 patients, many of whom traveled great distances in one day. In many cases, the patients also received treatment on site. Almost 200 professionals donated 12 hours of medical care but, due to the nature of the program, had to provide the most basic of eye care.
“People do not travel a long way to have a burger. Like McDonald’s we have to go where our patients are,” Dr. Belfort said.
“We need to respond to society’s needs by treating cataract, diabetic retinopathy and deliver glasses to kids and the elderly,” he said.