![]() ![]() The price points of technologies like these have too often kept them out of reach for the eye care professionals who could most benefit from them, which is why Orbis works to make them available for free for eye care teams in low- and middle-income countries. More recently, Orbis has collaborated on the development of technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality tools that are revolutionizing how eye care professionals treat their patients and undergo training. Cybersight allowed Orbis to quickly adapt and continue serving communities in need during the pandemic, including by launching virtual versions of Flying Eye Hospital courses. More than 56,000 users across more than 200 countries and regions are now registered on the platform. Orbis began investing in remote learning in the earliest days of the internet by creating Cybersight, is an award-winning telemedicine platform that gives eye care professionals in areas with the greatest need free virtual access to training and other resources to better help their patients. Through these efforts, Orbis has supported the establishment or improvement of 60 tertiary hospitals, 280 secondary eye hospitals, over 800 primary eye care centers, and health facilities, nearly 160 vision centers and over 75 pediatric eye care centers that are ensuring more people can access quality eye care. Orbis launched long-term country programs in 1998 that are now training local eye care teams, building strong eye care systems and influencing national policies to prioritize eye care across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. ![]() Daniel Neely (Indiana University School of Medicine) in action during surgery on the Flying Eye Hospital. Long-time volunteer faculty pediatric surgeon, Dr. The people Orbis trains go on to provide sight-saving care in their communities and, in many cases, go on to train eye care professionals themselves. Orbis has also trained hundreds of thousands of eye care professionals at all levels – including tens of thousands of medical doctors. Over the past four decades, Orbis has conducted tens of millions of eye screenings and conducted eye surgeries and laser treatments for hundreds of thousands of patients. Since 1982, three generations of the Flying Eye Hospital have taken training to eye care teams in over 95 countries around the world, while Orbis has continued to innovate and grow its work beyond that carried out on the plane to achieve scalable impact. What has changed is that, today, we have more ways to bring more people together than ever before.” We still believe that the best way to save sight is to bring people together to share knowledge, skills, and support. “Orbis’s founders had a simple yet ambitious vision when they first conceived of the Flying Eye Hospital four decades ago: to end avoidable blindness by providing training to eye care teams around the world,” said Derek Hodkey, President & CEO of Orbis International. “That vision hasn’t changed. On March 1, 1982, Orbis’s iconic Flying Eye Hospital – a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board a plane – took its first flight, launching a legacy of innovation that has continued to define Orbis over the past four decades.
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