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SightLife program in India focuses on reducing corneal blindness through transplants
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There is a high prevalence of untreated corneal blindness in the developing world. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 4.8 million people with bilateral corneal blindness and 22 million people with unilateral corneal blindness globally. It is estimated that at least 40% of those with corneal blindness can be treated with a corneal transplant, but fewer than 50,000 such transplants are performed each year outside of North America and Europe.
While in many areas there is a shortage of trained surgeons, a lack of transplantable donor corneas is the biggest barrier to attacking this problem. A significant proportion of corneal blind live in South Asia. Under the leadership of SightLife, a large U.S. eye bank based in Seattle, an ambitious plan to significantly reduce corneal blindness in India has been formulated. This model, if successful, might well serve as an example for others committed to making an impact on corneal blindness in other developing countries.
The following program facts have been provided to me by Monty Montoya, the CEO of SightLife, and my wife, Jaci Lindstrom, who serves on its board of directors. The project is under the auspices of SightLife Global Programs and led by a group of dedicated individuals including Tim Schottman, Jeremy Shuman, Bernie Iliakis, Michelle Chamberlain, Brian Washburn and Paul Dubord, MD, FRCSC, the SightLife board chair and a leading corneal surgeon.
India was selected because it has a large corneal blind population, more than 1.1 million bilaterally blind and 7 million with unilateral blindness, in a country with an advanced legal and regulatory structure and a highly trained cohort of ophthalmic surgeons with strong facility infrastructure. The missing link is a network of eye banks capable of providing an adequate supply of quality donor corneas.
While there are more than 700 registered eye banks in India, most of these eye banks provide a very small number of transplantable corneas. The SightLife plan, working with global, regional and local volunteer and professional leadership, is to help develop 30 large regional eye banks in India that will each provide more than 3,000 donor corneas suitable for transplant each year.
To date, 11 partner eye banks have been recruited, with the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute’s Ramayamma International Eye Bank serving as an operational leader and training center. These eye banks generated tissue for 3,471 cornea transplants in 2010, 5,622 in 2011 and a projected 7,700 in 2012. The plan is to add two to five new partner eye banks each year with a goal of 30 and 100,000 transplants per year by 2020.
SightLife has established a model with clear criteria for success. These include professional leadership, community tissue acquisition and distribution, scalability with financial sustainability, and high-quality standards equivalent to those practiced in the U.S. The SightLife model includes all the components necessary to make a sustainable impact in reducing the burden of corneal blindness in the world.
This project is, in my opinion, definitely worthy of support, and interested parties can contact Monty Montoya at SightLife, 221 Yale Ave. N., Suite 450, Seattle, WA 98109 or by email at monty.montoya@sightlife.org.