Eyeworld

EW IN OTHER NEWS 86 July 2015 solution to the difficulty faced by healthcare providers in resource- limited regions where access to affordable eye equipment is a major challenge. I would like to thank Dr. Graham Wilson for his continuous clinical support and supervision; Benjamin O'Keeffe for his business management knowledge; and Daniel Dillen and Hanna Eastvold-Edwins for their technical knowledge and contribution to this project. For more information on the device, visit www.ophthalmicdocs. com. EW Editors' note: Dr. Hong is an ophthal- mology resident based in New Zealand. He has no financial interests related to this article. Contact information Hong: hschiong@gmail.com V I S I O N INDICATIONS AND IMPORTANT SAFET Y INFORMATION (CONTINUED) Rx Only ATTENTION: Reference the Directions for Use for a complete listing of Indications and Important Safety Information. WARNINGS: The TECNIS® 1-Piece IOL should not be placed in the ciliary sulcus. PRECAUTIONS: Do not reuse, resterilize, or autoclave. ADVERSE EVENTS: In 3.3% of patients, reported adverse events of cataract surgery with the TECNIS® 1-Piece IOL included macular edema. Other reported reactions occurring in less than 1% of patients were secondary surgical intervention (pars plana vitrectomy with membrane peel) and lens exchange (due to torn lens haptic). TECNIS is a trademark owned by or licensed to Abbott Laboratories, its subsidiaries or affiliates. © 2015 Abbott Medical Optics Inc. www.AbbottMedicalOptics.com | PP2015CT0486 The Wiki continued from page 85 Inspiration for the device E ight years ago, Dr. Hong went to Kenya as a medical student, hoping to make changes in the developing world. But when he got there, he saw the stark reality of conditions and his feelings of hope changed. "That hope was smashed," he said in a recent TEDxAuckland talk. "There are just too many sick people, too many diseases, lack of funding, lack of equipment. They even had to reuse [everything] ... Things that we throw away without second thought [they held onto]." Then he saw his first cataract surgery performed there, on a patient who had been blinded for 10 years with cataracts. When the patient could see again, the look on the patient's face was incredible, he said. It made him realize that performing eye surgery truly made a difference in a person's life. "To me, sight is the most important sensory perception," he said. He informed the audience that there are 285 million people with visual impairment around the world, 39 million of whom are blind, and 80% of which is preventable. Of those, 90% live in developing countries. "One of the major problems lies in the access to affordable eye equip- ment," he said. "Imagine living in sub-saharan Africa. How could you afford to buy this equipment? Even if you could, they're just too big and bulky and fragile to be brought around for field trips." About a year ago, he began work on the OphthalmicDocs Fundus, the first open-source piece of eye equipment in the world. "No one deserves to be blind if it's preventable," he said. EW Screenshot of the app Source (all): Hong Sheng Chiong, MB, BCh, BAO

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