Cargo plane is transformed into a ‘flying hospital’ to helping fight preventable blindness

A cargo plane has been transformed into a flying mission to combat preventable blindness.

Thanks to the efforts of The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital - an international charity campaign fighting avoidable blindness - volunteer medical professionals have made a world-first airborne teaching hospital.

Around 2.2 billion people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment, and over half of those are preventable or require addressing.

Orbis has taken on the humanitarian mission of preventing blindness and providing eye care to communities in need.

The Orbis Flying Hospital is a airborne ophthalmic teaching hospital / gbr.orbis.org

The charity was donated an MD-10 cargo aircraft from FedEx. It serves as an opportunity to teach eyecare professionals on a global scale, that otherwise wouldn't be able to due to limited funding and facilities.

When the aircraft is not on a mission, it's usually situation at an airport where the volunteers set up the immersive training facilities.

Inside the aircraft fits an operating room, classroom and recovery room.

The aircraft also impressively hosts as audio-visual system that streams live surgery in 3D, and enables simulation in ophthalmology.

Maurice Geary, director of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, said: 'We have local physicians from our partners around the world who will come on board.

'They will sit in the classroom here and we are able to watch the surgeries that are happening in our operating room. We are able to watch them live on the screen here at the front of the room.'

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The interactive learning allows eyecare professionals to learn up close and hands-on. Geary emphasised that 'everything is slowed down and focused on training' which makes it so effective. The surgeries can be watched on screen with two way audio, so questions can be asked live.

The Flying Eye Hospital averages three trips a year, each lasting two to three weeks. The airplane usually lands a couple of days before the training program starts, as the setup process of the equipment can take around six to eight hours.

So far, the 'airborne hospital' has provided training in over 95 countries, offering live lectures and surgery broadcasts which are streamed on its telemedicine platform, Cybersight.

Geary said: 'The idea is that when we leave at the end of our project, that they either have those skills, or they have the confidence to go ahead and do those surgical procedures themselves after we're gone.'

The Flying Eye Hospital is the third generation plane, following the success of Orbis' initial venture in 1982, becoming the first non-land-based hospital to gain US accreditation.