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.

Port to Xbox 360 using new Gametrack Freedom.

ExtendibilityAs 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