curing blindness in the developing world
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Curing Blindness in the Developing World. Team: Aidan Lynch Felim Ros McMahon Eoin O' BrienMaria O' Connor Mentor: Daniel O'Byrne. The Need. 37 million blind worldwide 9 million in Africa with preventable blindness 50-75% due to cataracts. What is a Cataract?. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Curing Blindness in the Developing World
Curing Blindness in the Developing World
Team:Aidan LynchFelim Ros McMahonEoin O' BrienMaria O' Connor
Mentor:Daniel O'Byrne
The Need37 million blind worldwide
9 million in Africa with preventable blindness
50-75% due to cataracts
What is a Cataract?A clouding of the natural lens, the part of the eye responsible for focusing light and producing clear, sharp images.
This may be removed in under than 10 minutes, restoring sight
Why the crisis?Developed world
Africa
Rate of 6000 cataract operations per million
Surplus of cataract surgeons, shortage of cataracts to maintain skills!
Rate of only 350 cataract operations per million
On average 1 Cataract surgeon per million
Right To SightLaunched in 2006by Mary Robinson and Ralph Fiennes
Right To SightAngolaCameroonD.R. CongoEthiopiaKenyaMalawiRwandaSouth Africa
IndiaA cataract surgeon needs to be trained by a cataract surgeon.
But people do not need to be doctors to be trained, such as this cataract surgeon in Malawi
Not Just For Doctors
Our Training Simulator impacts 5 of the UNs 8 Millennium Development Goals
Target 1.A:Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
Target 1.B:Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
Target 1.C:Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Target 2.A:Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Approximately 90% of visually impaired children in low-income countries are deprived of schoolingAchieve Universal Primary Education
Target 4.A:Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Up to 60% of children in low income countries are likely to die within one year of becoming blind. Moreover, around 500,000 children become blind each year Reduce Child Mortality
Target 5.A:Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratioImprove Maternal Health
Target 8.F:In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies.
Our simulator provides trainee surgeons with an invaluable training resource, by using existing technology in a new and unique way.Develop a Global Partnership for DevelopmentHow We Can Help
We set out to develop a training simulator that will be used to rapidly transfer the most delicate of cataract surgery skills SAFELY and CHEAPLY
Working with Dr. Colman from Right to Sight we broke the procedure into discrete steps
We then modelled the steps in our training simulator
How We Can HelpThe EYESi is the only simulator currently available
But this is still in the development stage
And costs 180,000
Current Solution
Our SolutionRunning on a Microsoft Windows PC
Using two motion sensitive controllers
Total cost less than $500
17Sounds great Does it work?Studies have shown that the number of complications for an eye surgeon decreases exponentially over the first hundred procedures.
Simulator training greatly shortens this learning period and allows surgeons to learn in a measured and controlled environment18Sounds great Does it work?
Demo20This training simulator will greatly reduce the time taken to train new surgeons.
Resulting in a greater number of surgeons.
It will allow existing surgeons to monitor the progress of trainees online.Impact21
We have taken existing low cost equipment
Combined it in a way in which it was never intended to be used
To combat a very real problem facing millionsInnovation22Infrared LED / Camera
Wiimote
Bluetooth
Web server
Technology
Technology
Technology
TechnologyWe now have all the major surgical steps modeled in our simulator, along with some general hand-eye coordination levels.
A scoring system that monitors the key aspects of the students performance.
The ability to adjust the difficulty level of the different tasks.
And an online system that allows students and surgeons to share results and discuss their progress.To Date27This technology could be used to train surgeons in many different procedures.
The technique we have used is not limited to medical applications and could be used in any hand-eye coordination training.ExtendibilityExtendibility
As a team we have been greatly inspired by the potential impact of our training simulator.
We are building an online community to support our student colleagues in Africa.
And very much looking forward to taking this to Cairo next week.Team37 million blind worldwide.
1 Cataract surgeon per million.
50-75% of preventable blindness in Africa due to cataracts.
Our simulator offers the chance to really speed up the training of new surgeons.To Recap
Questions