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Flying Eye Hospital envisions bright future

Flying Eye Hospital doctor Garth Taylor, right, is presented with an award at the Orbis Taiwan office yesterday by Orbis Executive Director Kathy Spahn, left, for having completed 100 medical assistance trips to developing countries. PHOTO: JOY SU, TAIPEI TIMES

The Flying Eye Hospital is exactly what one would assume it to be -- a fully equipped eye clinic in a DC-10 aircraft. This January, the aircraft will take two Taiwanese ophthalmologists to the Philippines where they will spend one week providing medical care to patients and training local healthcare workers.

"Because in Taiwan most preventable cases of blindness are treated, people do not realize how serious a problem blindness is in other areas of the world" said Cliff Chien (錢為家), executive director of the Taiwan affiliate office of Orbis, the non-profit organization that runs the Flying Eye Hospital.

Indeed, 45 million of the world's people are blind and another 135 million have poor vision and are at risk of becoming blind. At the same time, 80 percent of these conditions are avoidable with appropriate treatment and prevention measures.

"Unless you have an eye problem, it's hard to understand what it's like. Most of the attention and resources are given to heart surgery or pediatrics. However, I've always believed that the human body is an extension of the eye," said Garth Taylor, a Queen's University professor and ophthalmologist in Ontario, Canada, who has participated in 100 Flying Eye Hospital trips over the past 21 years.

Since its establishment in 1982, the Flying Eye Hospital has visited various developing nations around the world. Taylor explained that the first task upon landing is to select the patients who will be treated during the trip. Patients are chosen according to the educational potential of their condition and the severity of the condition. The rest of the week is dedicated to training local doctors with demonstrations on selected patients.

As a Mandarin-speaking nation, Taiwan has a unique contribution, as 20 percent of the Flying Eye Hospital destinations are in China. In January, Ray Tsai (蔡瑞芳), a Chang Gung Memorial Hospital ophthalmologist and Liu Jung-hung (劉榮宏), director of the Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, will travel to Angeles City in the Philippines as visiting faculty on the Flying Eye Hospital.

"The Flying Eye Hospital teaches people to fish instead of giving them fish," Tsai said.

Taiwan's gain

Tsai went on to explain that while Orbis sought to impart medical skills to developing nations, Taiwan also stood to gain from the international trips.

"The easiest way for Taiwan to gain international recognition is through non-governmental international organizations," said Tsai, explaining that Taiwanese membership in the World Health Organization would be more likely if Taiwan first established itself as an important player in the field of international health.

"Taiwan has developed very quickly in the past few years and is now in a position to help developing nations. It's time for Taiwan to contribute -- be it with monetary or medical assistance," Tsai said.

"Taiwan's medical assistance should take two routes. We should work with international organizations, gaining international recognition in the process. However, Taiwan should also establish its own assistance programs in the future," Tsai said.

In addition, the Flying Eye Hospital is also an opportunity for visiting doctors to learn from medical conditions that do not exist in their home countries.

"In India, eye clinics are divided into two sections: one section for the poor and another for those who can pay," Tsai said.

"In the clinic for the poor, there are maybe four or five doctors for every 200 patients. Taiwan's doctors are skilled, but do you think we could be faster than the Indian doctors? Each [Indian] patient sees the doctor for three minutes. It takes us 20 minutes per patient," Tsai said.

"On one hand, Taiwanese doctors can help provide man power. On the other hand, we're gaining more experience [from the Indian health conditions]," Tsai said.

Taylor also echoed Tsai's sentiments.

"The Flying Eye Hospital has broadened my scope of international ophthalmology ... [while at the same time] shrinking the world of ophthalmology. The [local] doctors also teach me a lot," Taylor said.

Orbis Executive Director Kathy Spahn also agreed, saying, "Flying Eye Hospital visiting doctors learn about other diseases. Diseases are becoming more international. They learn from doctors that have to work with very little, developing low cost solutions," Taylor said.

However, no matter how frugal the solution, Taylor and Tsai both confirmed that corneal transplants were often needed in treating eye conditions.

When the cornea is damaged, light is unable to enter the eye, preventing the patient from seeing, according to Taylor. Among other ophthalmologic conditions, corneal transplants can treat corneal blindness and trachoma, a contagious eye infection that is responsible for 15 percent of blindness worldwide.

"In Taiwan, we are unable to provide other countries with corneas. The only eye bank we have, the Chunghwa Eye Bank Foundation, only imports corneas from abroad for a processing fee," Tsai said, adding that there was also a domestic need for the procurement of corneas for transplants.

In addition, Orbis representatives pointed out that while there were two Taiwanese visiting faculty volunteering on the Flying Eye Hospitals, there were over 30 Canadian doctors.

Taylor explained that the technical standards set for the Flying Eye Hospital faculty were quite high, while Tsai further added that international recommendations were required for visiting faculty.

Chien explained that there were about six Taiwanese candidates who could possibly participate in future Flying Eye Hospital trips, explaining that the doctors were busy.

However, Taylor said that the trips were not arduous for him.

"It's such an easy task for me because it's fun ... I've done just about everything -- including toilet-cleaning -- except for flying the airplane," he said.
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