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Education, training key to reducing reversible blindness worldwide, clinician says
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SAN DIEGO — Approximately 18 million people around the world cannot perform daily tasks because of reversible blindness, mainly due to cataracts. That number could potentially be addressed through education, Geoffrey C. Tabin, MD, said here.
He has been assisting Sanduk Ruit, MS, in addressing the high rate of curable blindness worldwide. Together, they founded the Himalayan Cataract Project.
"What we've been trying to do is eradicate preventable and curable blindness through education and establishing the infrastructure for things to go forward," Dr. Tabin said at Glaucoma Day preceding the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting. "It's a way we can all work together to try to overcome the incredible burden of blindness in our world."
The model to improve eye care to the Himalayans was on a sustainable level, with an emphasis on improving physicians' cataract surgery skills, Dr. Tabin said. He said they established programs to train ophthalmic assistants and offer education through subspecialty and residency training. A similar model has been used in India at Aravind Eye Care System and LV Prasad Eye Institute.
"We create a system where no one does anything that someone with lesser skills can do," Dr. Tabin said.
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