According to MyVision, the average cost of cataract surgery is $3,500 per eye and can reach as high as $7,000 per eye in the United States . That’s already expensive for many Americans, but there are 700 million people in the world who live on $2 a day or less, and probably 2 billion people in the world who live on $5 a day or less. How do they access safe and affordable treatment?

That's the dilemma faced by Dr. Jeffrey Levenson, the chief medical officer of SEE International and the medical director of Levenson Eye Associates in Jacksonville, Fla. For the past 20 years, Dr. Levenson has focused much of his time on treating cataracts and halting preventable blindness. "Ophthalmology is a wonderful environment in which to make the world a better place; you can have a dramatic impact on people's lives. In a way that's fun, exhilarating and ultimately very gratifying," he says.

His journey to give back recently led to a partnership with YouTube star MrBeast and a video that hit 115 million views on YouTube. Not what you would typically see on the resume of your average cataract-curing ophthalmologist.

INSPIRATION FROM WITHIN

Dr. Levenson’s motivation to focus on cataracts and preventing blindness came from close to home.

"When I was 51 years old, I developed cataracts myself,” he says. “I remember slowly losing my vision, but after surgery, I started thinking; 'My God, what if I had been born in the mountains of Peru or the slums of El Salvadorand wasn’t able to access treatment?' So I started doing international humanitarian work in the weeks after my own cataract surgery.” 

Having a renewed outlook on life after a medical procedure is not unusual, but Dr. Levinson went one step further. For most of his career, he had been a phacoemulsification specialist, but after undergoing manual small-incision cataract surgery (MSICS), he became a committed convert.

Fifteen years after that life-changing operation, Dr. Levenson remains an enthusiastic proponent of MSICS and says it is crucial in international humanitarian work. In one recent project in the Philippines sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Vision, he worked with a team of four local doctors and 15 nurses to perform 650 cataract surgeries in one week.

"Everything's done by hand manually in this incredibly clever adaptation of cataract surgery, using MSICS. It doesn't require complex technology or fancy or expensive instrumentation. It provides outcomes for people there that are just about as good as results from difficult cataract procedures in the United States," Dr. Levenson says.

WORKING AT HOME AND ABROAD

Dr. Levenson's work with SEE International has taken him around the world. In addition to the Philippines, he's worked on cataract-curing projects in Peru, El Salvador, Namibia and other countries. Despite his busy schedule, full of international travel, he still finds time to help provide eye care to the most needy in the United States too, often using highly advanced and customized equipment.

"We use an ultrasound device, a miniaturized jackhammer, the tip of which vibrates 40,000 times per second, to liquefy and suck out the emulsified cataract. We also have implants of different designs to correct distance vision or reading vision, or all vision. We have lenses that are especially good at night vision. The lenses were custom-designed with the help of engineers at Johnson & Johnson and other companies," Dr. Levenson says.

HOW MANY SURGERIES?

Most recently, Dr. Levenson’s journey led to acollaboration with MrBeast, the most viewed and subscribed influencer on YouTube who is famous for his larger-than-life stunts. MrBeast, or Jimmy Donaldson as he's known in the real world, reached out to Dr. Levenson after watching the latter's TED Talk about curing preventable blindness, which he says barely got any views, and said he wanted to help.

“[MrBeast] called me out of the blue one day about 6 months ago and said, ‘Hey, I saw your TED talk. I love what you do. Let's do 1,000 cases 3 weeks from now worldwide.’ I'd never heard of him and almost hung up.” After a quick Google search revealed that MrBeast had about 100 million followers, Dr. Levenson called him back and within a month they were getting started on 1,000surgeries, including 40 in Dr. Levenson's home base of Jacksonville. The resulting video garnered more than 100 million views and sparked international interest via coverage on news sites like CNN.

ONLY A BAND-AID

Dr. Levenson says he wouldn't mind collaborating with MrBeast again in the future.

"We'd love to do a gift effect program every year and remind the world every year that there's a problem that's fixable, that it needs the world's attention to fix it," he says. "Ultimately, this is a ‘Band-Aid,’ and what we really need is a better healthcare delivery system with overseas capacity building.”

“Still, that video with MrBeast led to 40 people in my hometown who were completely blind, who couldn't afford surgery, right here in the United States being cured,” Dr. Levenson adds. “That video got 115 million views, and it started a conversation around the world.” OM