Committed to Ending Global Blindness by 2020

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The Global Retina Institute and VISION 2020

The Global Retina Institute is a proud supporter of Vision 2020, a World Health Care Organization global initiative to end blindness around the world.

Launched in 1999, VISION 2020 has a singular mission to eliminate avoidable global blindness by the year 2020.

Here are some fast facts about global blindness:

  • Number of people of all ages estimated to be visually impaired: 285 million
  • Number of people of all ages who are estimated to be blind: 39 million
  • Major causes of visual impairment: Cataract 39%, Uncorrected refractive error 18%, Glaucoma 10% , Age related Macular Degeneration 7%, Diabetic retinopathy 4%,
  • 85% of global blindness is preventable

As the world's population continues to explode, so does the number of people suffering from preventable blindness. Unfortunately, the lack of training in ophthalmology for doctors around the world means that we've barely made a dent in reducing global blindness over the past few decades. We find this completely unacceptable.

The Global Retina Institute is committed to working alongside VISION 2020 to meet their deadline by educating people about eye health, training new doctors in ophthalmology, and traveling to care for eye patients around the world.

Putting Ophthalmology Back on the Map

The fight against blindness around the world starts right here at home. We are passionate about exposing a new generation of U.S. doctors to a specialty that is often overlooked during medical school. Our state-of-the-art facility is home base for microsurgical simulator training and experience with the latest technologies and training tools.

Creating a Lasting Impact

We take new doctors with us overseas to practice eye care in conditions that require them to improvise, dig deep, and problem solve. Our humanitarian trips are life-changing for both our doctors and our patients.

The lasting impact of these trips is that doctors return home with the necessary skills to practice humanitarian care and clinical excellence locally, and globally. Their time with us heightens their awareness of eye conditions that signal other types of systemic disease --making these practitioners able to recognize problems with their own patients here at home.

Our humanitarian work also forces us to think through ways to improve processes and patient experience for our Arizona patients. Whether it's working across cultural differences, language barriers or a lack of resources, practicing global health pushes us to be precise and thoughtful about everything we do and all of our patients benefit from that precision.

Leveraging Technology And Training

Our Arizona facility is currently using surgical simulators to train retinal surgeons. This type of training helps build confidence, improve patient outcomes, and eliminates medical error.

We're also working on funding to get these simulators into low-income countries where there are so many environmental obstacles, lower medical school completion rates, and doctors in need of better training.

We want to leverage technology to connect with healthcare providers in other countries so we can help them help others.

And this training doesn't just help new doctors - it pushes us to keep our own skills sharp, and stay up-to-date on the latest tools and technologies as well.

The Global Retina Institute, in conjunction with our Non-Profit Red Rover Ventures, is committed to increasing public awareness of how to prevent blindness through Research, Eye-Care Training and Development Work.

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