NO MORE BLIND BABIES:
FOCUS Inc. believes that nothing is more important than preventing or treating blindness in children and we are committed to our campaign to eradicate this by supporting the development of pediatric ophthalmologists in Haiti. This dream has been augmented recently by our award of a grant from USAID CBP, United States Agency for International Development Childhood Blindness Prevention in 2021 to support both a pediatric fellowship training program and a retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) program in Haiti.
Dr Shakespere, gives the babies a series of eye drops and then checks for signs of ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity) Fortunately the baby here has healthy eyes.
INFRASTRUCTURE
FOCUS Inc provides support for many different infrastructure projects at the eye clinic at HUEH. (State Hospital) Everything from running water to electricity was a constant struggle, especially when the electricity would be lost during surgery. FOCUS with the help of our donors installed a solar power/battery back-up system that automatically kicks in on loss of electricity from the very unreliable grid. A water cistern was installed on the top of the operating room to supply water continuously when needed. We repaired or installed air conditioners to all of the rooms and regularly need to maintain these since the air quality is poor in the city. We renovated several of the examination rooms and wet lab with improvements in lighting and patient flow. We have paid for high speed internet service for the last several years to support our lecture series and telemedicine initiatives.
Now that we have solar power and battery backup, surgery will not have to be halted due to a power outage.
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
We currently have an internet connection for review of surgical cases and for teleconsultations. Through grants from Zeiss, ASCRS, and Digicel, we will soon be able to do high bandwidth real time wet lab and surgical cases. Video recording will then occur and be stored in the cloud, so surgeons in Haiti can record their cases for later review, or even remote real-time monitoring. This system will eventually allow a video library of teaching cases to be created.
When fully functioning, the advisor physicians will be able to virtually assist on more complicated surgeries.