Perceptions
Spreading Sight Around the World
The ORBIS flying eye hospital makes this vision a reality.
BY LOUIS PILLA, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Nine or ten times a year, a DC-10 lands on a runway in a developing country, delivering a priceless resource to the population. The aircraft doesn't bring water, or food, or economic know-how, important as these things are to a nation yearning to grow. Instead, it brings something equally, if not more, precious -- restored sight.

The plane, billed as the world's only flying eye hospital, comes from ORBIS International. ORBIS is fundamentally an educational organization, providing training and skills to eyecare professionals in these developing nations. ORBIS says it has brought nearly 500 programs to 80 countries and enhanced the skills of more than 54,000 physicians, nurses, and other professionals.

Since 1982, the nonprofit group has supported the flying eye hospital. During a typical 3-week mission, local eyecare professionals work with volunteer ORBIS faculty on the DC-10 to perform surgeries on about 60 patients. Supported by some 25 full-time, paid clinical and administrative staff members, faculty members donate their time during the 3-week missions, three surgeons each week, notes ORBIS's Jilly Stephens. Local physicians view the procedures on television screens in the plane's classroom.

In 1997, ORBIS focused efforts on bringing long-term care to very needy populations, such as those in Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam. ORBIS works with local clinicians and others to assess the causes of blindness and identify interventions. ORBIS also conducts about 50 hospital-based continuing education and primary eyecare programs each year.

Bringing these programs to various countries throughout the world takes a great deal of planning though "we've really perfected the process over the years," says Stephens, who has been involved with ORBIS since 1993.

One key is that ORBIS receives an official invitation to visit the country from both the country's minister of health and its ophthalmic society. Unless both of those agencies are engaged, Stephens says, chances are the program could fail. Involving the ophthalmic society and local ophthalmic community minimizes the chances that the DC-10 group will be regarded as an intrusion, notes Stephens. Some of that happened in ORBIS's early days, she says, but that now doesn't occur "in any major way."

Among the many specific logistical issues to be addressed:

• Can the runway, taxiway, and apron accommodate the airplane?
• Is ground equipment available to unload the equipment? (The equipment enables the team to supply its own power, water, and medical gases.)
• Are translators, accommodations and transportation available for the crew?

Besides the volunteer faculty, ORBIS relies on donations from many other sources. The group says that nearly all of the medical supplies and equipment it uses are donated by ophthalmic and pharmaceutical firms and that financial resources come from more than 250,000 active corporations, foundations, and individuals. Recently, Ronald McDonald House Charities funded a grant of $1.3 million to ORBIS.

As you might expect, bringing sight to needy populations around the world can be immensely gratifying. "I've never had a position where you see such immediate results to your work," says Stephens. "You see four or five people come onto the plane blind in the morning, and leave at the end of the day more often than not with sight restored."

For more information, visit www.orbis.org or call (646) 674-5500.