HelpMeSee, a New York-based non-profit organisation leading the global campaign to end cataract blindness, presented its breakthrough eye care technologies at the first-ever World Conference on Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS) that kicked off this weekend here.
The conference that began on Friday brought together nearly 1,000 cataract surgeons from around the world who practice MSICS. It was held with the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Society of Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgeons, an organisation that “aims to improve outcomes of cataract surgery” and “provide better vision to more patients at an affordable cost.”
Cataract blindness, a leading cause of blindness globally and in South Asia, is where the MSICS procedure first found widespread use. The procedure offers a high-quality and highly cost-effective method for treating cataract visual impairment and cataract blindness.
“Virtual tissue surgical training marries the genius of medicine and the methodology of aviation,” said Matthew Walden, Clinical Research Coordinator at HelpMeSee, about the procedure.
“This innovation has altered and permanently changed the trajectory of hands-on human learning,” he said.
HelpMeSee’s technology includes a focus on simulation-based learning to train tens of thousands of specialists needed to carry out cataract surgery in the developing world. Developed in partnership with Moog, Symphony Teleca, SenseGraphics and Insimo, the HelpMeSee Eye Simulator provides unprecedented haptic (sense of touch) feedback and uses advanced physics-based modelling to simulate the effects of live surgery.
“Large-scale training of cataract surgeons is the only way forward if we hope to tackle cataract blindness,” said Hina Patel, HelpMeSee’s Business Intelligence and Quality Assurance Lead.
Earlier last month, the organisation launched a mobile health, or mHealth, smartphone application, claiming that it could revolutionise eye care in the developing world. According to the app, workers can send cataract images and patient data to a health clinic almost instantly.
