Project - Help Me See - MSICS

Help Me See - MSICS
HelpMeSee.org

Read the report about the doctors in training and their own comments: Dr. Urvi and Dr. Padwal.

Globally, 100 million people live with vision loss due to cataract with 17 million disabled with blindness and 83 million visually impaired. A severe shortage of eye surgeons with cataract surgery skills is the main reason for the prevailing burden of cataract in developing countries.

One of HelpMeSee's goals is to restore sight to all cataract blind. The HelpMeSee training course intends to reduce complication rates in India and assist low-income individuals.Geographically, trainees will come from within India. With about 20,000 ophthalmologists and only 8 performing cataract surgeries per 1 million population, India achieved a significant reduction of blindness prevalence from 0.68% in 2010 to 0.36% in 2019.

HelpMeSee has spent 10 years developing a simulation-based training solution that addresses one of the world's great challenges: shortening the time it takes to train eye surgeons to perform live surgeries. Through surgical simulation training an eye surgeon can practice and build skills by performing 100s of simulated surgeries outside the operating room without any human risk. Years of training on patients can be shortened to months.

The overall goal for 2021 is to train 500 surgeons globally. One Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery Simulation-Based Training Course (MSTC) consists of four surgeons. This grant will be used to train 2 surgeons at the HelpMeSee Learning Development and Training Center in Mumbai, India. The surgeons will be trained in the Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS) procedure, the "gold standard" for cataract surgery in developing countries.

The HelpMeSee surgical simulator is the most advanced technology on the market with tactile feedback, haptic feedback and real-time performance feedback. The simulator offers unparalleled visual life like graphic renderings. Soft tissue physics modeling combined with robotics gives the surgeon a real feel of how instruments interact with various layers of tissue in the eye. Each surgical attempt made by a surgeon is recorded. The recording can be played back and reviewed with an instructor to provide feedback and give guidance to enable surgeons to understand how to correct their errors and continue to perform until they reach competency on a procedure.

After completion of the MSICS training, just one qualified cataract surgeon may be able to perform 1,000 cataract surgeries per year in areas with adequate patient volume and facilities providing eye care access and sustainability. The surgeries will restore vision to the underprivileged visually impaired in India.