China Flying Eye Hospital Project is going Virtual

Generously supported by our long-standing sponsors FedEx, the five-week program in Mandarin aims to build the skills of our Chinese eye health partners in identifying, managing and treating eye disease through live lectures led by world-leading eye health professionals .

Currently, China has one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes as well as the largest number of blind people. With every person living with diabetes at risk of developing the sight threatening condition, combating diabetic retinopathy is one of the biggest global eye health priorities.

Early detection is key to fighting diabetic retinopathy. Ensuring awareness and education amongst communities as well as access to diabetes tests and routine eye screenings is essential.

Slideshow: Orbis's long established collaboration with FedEx

Orbis has worked in China since the Flying Eye Hospital visited Guangzhou in 1982. Since establishing an office in Beijing in 1999, our long-term projects have helped create quality, affordable and accessible eye care with a particular focus on rural areas.

Over the years, we have carried out 220 projects in 25 regions in China, trained over 20,000 health workers, conducted over 4.5 million screenings and completed over 130,000 sight-saving operations.

Our Flying Eye Hospital has landed in China over 30 times. 2016 saw the last hands-on Flying Eye Hospital training project take place in Shenyang with a hospital-based training project in Linyi following in 2018.

Slideshow: Orbis in China over the years

But as the global COVID-19 pandemic rages on and our in-person Flying Eye Hospital projects are still temporarily paused, we’ve pivoted towards online training via Cybersight, so our world leading volunteer faculty can continue to share their skills and fight blindness around the world.

A big thank you to FedEx and our Flying Eye Hospital team for putting together a structured curriculum of virtual ophthalmic training to safely equip our dedicated Chinese eye health partners with the skills and confidence to fight diabetic retinopathy.

Through Cybersight, we can make an impact in places where a physical presence simply isn't possible due to cost, logistics, security or — a global pandemic.

We have been investing in online training tools for decades and, even prior to the pandemic, had an established network of online training tools and remote lectures and mentors.

Now at an impressive 50,000 users, Cybersight helps eye health professionals – regardless of where they are located – to improve skills, collaborate on diagnosis and treatment of patients, and connect with a truly global community of practice that includes technicians, nurses, optometrists and ophthalmologists.

While our virtual projects are not a direct replacement for hands-on training, it does provide critical training to help our partners deliver emergency eye care especially during these challenging times.

A huge thanks goes to our supporters, donors and partners. It’s thanks to their commitment to our vision that we can continue to innovate and find new ways to use technology to fight blindness.

We’d also like to pay a special mention to our 2021 Flying Eye Hospital project sponsor FedEx, who, for four decades, has helped deliver quality training projects like this to fight blindness around the world.