Philanthropic Ophthalmology
The key to education and development is collaboration. Nowhere is this more obvious than in healthcare, where equality gaps between – and even within – countries are wide. All over the globe, partnerships between societies, professionals, governments and the public, are being created to address health inequalities, bringing personnel and equipment to remote medical facilities. Such philanthropic trips are becoming more commonplace in the field of eye health, with numerous organizations raising funds, collecting donated supplies, and sending ophthalmologists, nurses, orthoptists and other professionals to resource-poor countries.
Two such groups – the VISION 2020 LINKS program and a team from the eye clinic in Ahaus-Raesfeld-Rheine, Germany – recently made the journey to Uganda. Their mission: to bring their expertise and greatly needed equipment to hospitals, helping provide screening services and surgical intervention, and to teach local medical staff the skills they need to perform similar outreach in their own country.
In the following articles we speak with some of the people involved in these altruistic missions.
Muzungu Medicine: Eleven days, six ophthalmologists, and one small eye hospital in rural Uganda
While obtaining degrees in biology from the University of Alberta and biochemistry from Penn State College of Medicine, I worked as a freelance science and medical writer. I was able to hone my skills in research, presentation and scientific writing by assembling grants and journal articles, speaking at international conferences, and consulting on topics ranging from medical education to comic book science. As much as I’ve enjoyed designing new bacteria and plausible superheroes, though, I’m more pleased than ever to be at Texere, using my writing and editing skills to create great content for a professional audience.
