OSN Ophthalmic Outreach column will highlight volunteer experiences

A new column in Ocular Surgery News will allow ophthalmic professionals to share firsthand experiences in volunteerism.

A new column in Ocular Surgery News, OSN Ophthalmic Outreach, will allow ophthalmologists and others to share their experiences with volunteering their professional services in areas of need.

The column will be edited by John A. Hovanesian, MD, who himself has been a volunteer for the Armenian Eye Care Project. Dr. Hovanesian said the column will take a firsthand approach to volunteerism, explore the needs of a variety of volunteer organizations, encourage volunteerism and compare practices around the world.

“After my first volunteer trip, I was hooked,” Dr. Hovanesian said. “I was amazed with how little effort it took to have a meaningful and lasting impact on health care in this tiny, very needy country.”

Dr. Hovanesian said he will encourage physicians to share their own experiences with volunteerism, and he hopes the resulting columns will motivate the readers of Ocular Surgery News to undertake similar projects themselves.

Finding a match

Ocular Surgery News spoke to representatives of several ophthalmic volunteer organizations to learn how ophthalmologists can get involved in volunteerism.

Spokespeople for several organizations said that many ophthalmologists would like to volunteer their time, but they have little of it and do not know where to begin. Even researching the opportunities can seem time-consuming.

“A lot of ophthalmologists read stories about their colleagues going to Africa or India and doing all this great work, and they think, ‘That’s something I’d like to do someday, but how do you go about actually doing it?’” said Wendy Ovaitt, manager of International Assistance for the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (FAAO).

She said the FAAO is trying to ease ophthalmologists’ entry into volunteerism through its Eye Care Volunteer Registry. This online registry allows eye care professionals to search for volunteer sites and opportunities that match their skills and interests, with results delivered instantly.

“After registering, you just type in your criteria, hit a search button, and immediately the results pop up,” Ms. Ovaitt said. “They can review the results and, if a volunteer site sounds particularly interesting to them, they can e-mail the organization or the institution for more information and all the details.”

The registry also includes online consulting opportunities. Through telemedicine programs, “ophthalmologists can advise on diagnosis and treatment of patients who are a world away,” Ms. Ovaitt said.

The organizations

During Orbis Flying Eye Hospital programs, surgery is conducted both at the local hospitals and on the airplane. Pictured is surgery at Mandalay Eye and ENT Hospital. Image: Saine P

The organizations mentioned in this article are only a few of the many nongovernmental organizations that conduct volunteer efforts in ophthalmology. Other organizations will be mentioned in future OSN Ophthalmic Outreach columns.

Orbis International, known for its flying eye hospital, offers many volunteer opportunities for ophthalmologists. In addition to participating in projects involving the plane, physicians can also participate on the ground in developing countries, via computer as part of a telemedicine program or even in their own offices as mentors to visiting professionals.

“Our roots are in training. That’s ho w we started 25 years ago as a continuing medical education venue,” said Danielle Bogert, director of faculty relations and program support for Orbis. “About a decade ago we expanded to long-term, on the ground, multi-year projects with partner institutions to build capacity and strengthen eye care infrastructure, but training’s always remained an integral thread, and it is what our volunteers do.”

The Seva Foundation has provided eye care services in the past year to more than 25,000 children, and restored the vision of at least 30,000 adults through surgery, according to the organization. In addition, 300 eye care providers in target countries have received training through volunteer programs, and they will pass that training along to other.

“What we do is serve as a bridge between our programs and potential volunteers,” said Chundak Tenzing, MD, the sight program irector for Seva. “We help them collaborate directly — then together, they can devise projects that really make an impact.”

Surgical Eye-care Expeditions International, or SEE, “recruits, organizes and deploys surgical eye teams worldwide,” according to Harry S. Brown, MD, who founded the organization. He said he believes ophthalmologists can make a difference in surgically curable eye disease, especially cataract.

“The organization is mainly focused on doing safe, predictable, life-enhancing, sight-restoring surgery,” Dr. Brown said. “I felt an attack on surgically correctable blindness would be the most productive thing that an eye surgeon could do.”

What it takes

The first step in joining these or other nongovernmental organizations involved in volunteer work is to contact them directly or through the FAAO registry. Ophthalmic professionals must meet the criteria of the organization and, for some, undergo a credentialing procedure before officially joining a group.

“We have high standards in terms of credentialing and the process to become an Orbis volunteer because there is a lot to be expected,” Ms. Bogert said. “We put these physicians in pretty trying scenarios at times, so we pride ourselves on carefully screening and vetting the interested persons.”

After being accepted by an organization, volunteers will be assigned a task, a mission or an expedition.

“We use every second,” Ms. Bogert said. “When volunteer faculty are on the ground in a foreign setting, they are constantly teaching or demonstrating best practice — even simple things like, ‘The mask goes up over the nose.’”

At Seva, the mission begins well before the ophthalmic volunteers arrive at their site, said Naveen Chandra, MD, who has gone on volunteer trips with that organization.

“Very quickly, they put us in touch with the staff at Lumbini,” a hospital in rural Nepal that is supported by Seva, Dr. Chandra said. “We developed a lively e-mail exchange and put together an agenda for our visit. It made for a very productive week, rather than just showing up and not understanding what was really needed.”

What can be learned

First-time volunteers may think they are going to teach, but they will really be learning, said Carrie Libeu, the sight program manager for Seva.

“A first trip for a new volunteer would involve more learning than doing, ideally, from our perspective,” Ms. Libeu said. “They may be going to teach a certain specific thing, but they’re really going to learn how it’s working there and how can they help that and not change everything all at once.”

After an individual activity is over, many participants leave with a feeling of fulfillment and a better understanding of medicine in a developing nation, Ms. Libeu said.

“In the end we feel like we received more than we gave,” Seva volunteer Dr. Chandra said. “This is why we went into medicine in the first place. … It makes me re-energized and passionate about what I can do next.”

Other ways to help

Volunteering time through travel is not the only way to help these organizations. Ophthalmologists can work with physicians in other countries through the Internet or donate money or supplies. Donated educational materials can also be sent to physicians in developing nations.

“There is a need for current ophthalmic literature, medical journals, books and publications,” Ms. Bogert said. “They can also let us know if they’re interested in hosting fellows.”

Volunteers may also pinpoint needs themselves in the course of their trips and become donors when they return home, Ms. Libeu said.

“It becomes a natural follow-through sometimes that someone will volunteer in the field and they’ll identify very specific needs,” she said.

At Seva and other organizations, more experienced volunteers often instruct or guide new volunteers before they embark on their first missions.

“Some of our older volunteers take the time to respond to questions of our newer volunteers that want to go to the same area,” Dr. Tenzing said.

Submitting articles to OSN

Dr. Hovanesian said he hopes the OSN Ophthalmic Outreach column will help to broadcast the experiences of volunteering ophthalmologists to their peers, especially those interested in pursuing similar opportunities.

He encouraged ophthalmic professionals who have been involved in volunteer efforts and are willing to share their experiences or clinical pearls with their colleagues to contact him through the editors of OSN. Likewise, he said, organizations wishing to make their needs known can also contact him through OSN.

For more information:

• John A. Hovanesian, MD, is a clinical instructor at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute and is in private practice in Laguna Hills, Calif. He can be reached at Harvard Eye Associates, 24401 Calle De La Louisa, Suite 300, Laguna Hills, CA 92653; 949-951-2020; fax: 949-380-7856; e-mail: drhovanesian@harvardeye.com.
• Wendy Ovaitt, manager of International Assistance for the AAO, can be reached at the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, 655 Beach St., San Francisco, CA 94109; 415-447-0281; fax: 415-561-8567; e-mail: wovaitt@aao.org.
• Danielle Bogert, director of faculty relations and program support for Orbis, can be reached at Orbis International, 520 Eighth Ave., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018; 646-674-5508; fax: 646-674-5599; e-mail: Danielle.Bogert@orbis.org.
• Chundak Tenzing, MD, Sight Program Director for Seva, can be reached at the Seva Foundation, 1786 Fifth St., Berkeley, CA 94710; 510-845-7382, ext. 310; fax: 510-845-7410; e-mail: ctenzing@seva.org.
• Harry S. Brown, MD, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of SEE International, can be reached at 27 East De La Guerra St., C-2, Santa Barbara, CA 93101; 805-963-3303; fax: 805-965-3564; e-mail: hsbrown.md@cox.net.
• Naveen Chandra, MD, can be reached at the Department of Ophthalmology, Kaiser Permanente, 200 Muir Rd., Martinez, CA 94553; 925-372-1051; fax: 925-372-1060; e-mail: Naveen.Chandra@kc.org.
• Carrie Libeu, sight program manager for Seva, can be reached at the Seva Foundation, 1786 Fifth St., Berkeley, CA 94710; 510-845-7382; fax: 510-845-7410; e-mail: clibeu@seva.org.

• Katrina Altersitz is an OSN Staff Writer who covers all aspects of ophthalmology.