Mission: The helpmesee mission is to restore sight to millions of people through high-quality manual small incision cataract surgeries (msics), in partnership with a global network of cataract surgical specialists, of whom, 30,000 will be trained using a simulator-based program.
Programs: Training cataract specialists and supporting practice readiness: eliminating cataract blindness through training of cataract specialists to proficiency and practice readiness is the guiding purpose of helpmesee's work. Helpmesee quality assurance systems are developed for patient safety and best surgical results. The broad elements of quality control implementation cover: (1) quality of surgical simulation, equivalent to the level "d" in aviation, which provides virtually indistinguishable visual and tactile experience to the real eye. When our development of our simulation-based training system is complete, this will eliminate the need for 'live tissue' training that endangers patients and surgical outcomes. (2) objective assessment of proficiency and currency of skills of helpmesee surgeons. This is done through continuous surgical performance reviews and specialized training. (3) pre-sterilized single use surgical kits allowing high-quality standardization that are affordable and distributed through a premeditated supply chain. (4) patient management and surgical reporting system, which captures the pre, intra, and post-operative results and complications of each patient and surgical partner. Helpmesee practices total quality management solutions to deliver high volume cataract surgeries at the most affordable price of not more than $150 for each eye. Helpmesee practice readiness system engages cataract specialists to deliver quality surgeries at high volume in their given communities. With this, the number of successful manual small incision cataract surgeries (msics) performed is the basic indicator of mission progress. In the reporting year 2017 - the organization's 6th year of msics operations - helpmesee successfully reached a total of 301 surgical partners who performed 11,789 catartact surgeries. With the increasing number of surgical partners and the expanding campaign network in geographic regions and countries, helpmesee has the capacity to rapidly scale up the cataract surgical outreach. Helpmesee tracks and reports 100% of surgeries performed and reviews surgical quality outcomes by each surgical partner to monitor safety, efficiency and to instill best practices. Critical to the helpmesee campaign is the successful development and deployment of our simulation-based training program in cataract surgery. This simulator is designed to cover every possible variable and complication that could occur during live surgery. The 360-degree training module and instrucitonal courseware is currently being developed with the surgical simulator's virtual reality-based model of the human eye as the centerpiece.
public awareness: in 2017, helpmesee continued engaging in high-level policy dialogue and development of cataract surgical services, along with surgical quality assurance and patient care management standards across 301 partner surgeons, and with country governments and several global companies' corporate social responsibility (csr) sectors. The surgical partner program includes key advocacy components designed to yield greater public education, stronger understanding of cataract blindness within the community and broader support from influential government offices. Additionally, helpmesee launched an aggressive media and social media campaign to raise the awareness about the global health crisis of cataract blindness and the philosophy and subsequent programmatic actions being implemented by the organization. Additionally, helpmesee continues to form key partnerships with leading non-profits with similar programmatic goals to further strengthen public awareness and to lend credibility in eye health care policy dialogue.
HelpMeSee has been unilaterally focused and funding the eradication of blindness worldwide due to cataract. This is no small feat. Their 10+ year dedication to improving solutions for long-term resolution of the problem in countries like India, Africa, Latin America, China and more is impressive.
As donor of HelpMeSee and an employee, it warms my heart to observe for myself how the young surgeons improve their surgical skills over the course of their training and become more and more confident. How many of us would volunteer to be the first patient of a new surgeon operating on the eye? However it is inevitable that some of us will be among the hundreds of patients that are needed to be practiced upon unless a revolutionary change like HelpMeSee training is universally adopted. It is amazing how a training a single surgeon can translate to restored vision for several thousands.
Can't image my life without sight. So glad there are organizations like HelpMeSee out there who are fighting for people who are needlessly blind! I love their model of training more surgeons to make a bigger impact.
Unique non-profit leveraging powerful technology to solve the cataract world health crisis. They are a 4 start Charity Navigator rated organization. Support this cause!
