Dr. Ruit told the Himalayan News Service, “I am glad that people are recognising our work and appreciating it not only in the Indian sub-continent but across the world. Branding something and taking it to the world is something Nepal should be proud of.” Dr. Ruit is the Medical Director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu, Nepal.

“It’s good and important that our work has been well received and recognised because in this 21st century, which is all about economy, marketing and branding, and networking people all over the world who don’t know Nepal that well come to know about things we do here is good. I am happy not only for me but for the recognition my team and country has received,” he added.

Dr. Ruit has earned much recognition in his career including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, Reader's Digest Asian of the Year Award, Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia, and the Prince Mahidol Award. (Read more about Dr. Ruit's recent awards.)

The CMO Asia Awards for excellence in branding are hosted by the Asia Brand Congress and they represent 25 countries across Asia. The award ceremony will take place at SUNTEC Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre on July 23, 2010.

The article mentions that on August 28, Dr. Tabin will hold a fundraiser, The Colorado Night for Sight Gala, at the American Alpine Club in Golden, Colorado.

The HCP wishes to thank Anthony and wish him well on his ride!

Job C. Heintz, CEO of the Himalayan Cataract Project, was pictured in this article in the publication Modern Ghana.

Chief Executive of KATH Prof. Ohene Adjei said the facility will serve as a center of excellence for the training of ophthalmic doctors and professionals in the West African Sub-Region. He said the hospital's current eye clinic is faced with serious problems of congestion.

“The new Eye Centre of Excellence, when completed in a year's time will provide the needed facilities and space for the hospital to provide world class training and services to our ophthalmic professionals and patients respectively,” Adjei told reporters.

Dr. Oliva says, "When Paul and I go with HCP, really our goal is support and training more so than just doing the surgeries. It's really about education and developing a model that works, because we think that's more effective than ourselves going and doing a few surgeries. What we see is that doctors who are trained in this type of surgery can then teach it to the other doctors and it grows."

Following cataract, corneal blindness is the second leading cause of blindness in Nepal and sight is restorable with a corneal transplant procedure. The Nepal Eye Bank was established in 1994 and currently provides 250 corneas per year for transplantation, which does not address the massive need for sight restoring surgery. HCP and SightLife are teaming together to provide the training, management expertise, funding, and surgical training necessary to expand the number of cornea transplants in Nepal to 3,000 corneas per year by 2015.

SightLife, as one of the world’s largest eyebanks, is dedicated to eradicating corneal blindness worldwide (estimated at 10 million persons). SightLife and HCP have committed to working together to further establish Nepal as a worldwide training and treatment center of excellence for corneal blindness.  

Just prior to the Eye Bank and Corneal Transplantation Conference, HCP’s Dr. Matt Oliva spent three days in Southeast Nepal working with Dr. Manoj Sharma, head of the corneal service at Lumbini  Institute of Ophthalmology. Lumbini is a large eye hospital that serves a densely populated tarai region of Nepal and North India with high volume cataract services, subspecialty services, and residency and surgical training for both Nepali and international physicians.

Dr. Oliva’s focus was to work with Dr. Sharma on expanding the corneal services available in this region. Dr. Oliva arrived with 7 corneas and surgical instruments for corneal surgery. Working together with Dr. Sharma, seven sight restoring corneal transplants were performed using newer lamellar transplant techniques.

HCP will collaborate with the Seva Foundation to train a second corneal surgeon at Lumbini later this year, when Dr. Kavita Dhakwa will spend three months in the United States for advanced surgical training in corneal transplantation.

Dr. Sharma commented:

“Dear Matt,
Thank you for all the help that you have given to us at Lumbini Eye Institute. You have added a new and very important historical page in our institute by introducing DSAEK and DALK corneal transplant techniques. We are very grateful to you.”

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