Marseille doctors have developed a single-use kit for poor regions to perform cataract surgery in 10 minutes. With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It all started with a crazy project: to eradicate cataract blindness from the surface of the globe. This bet, two doctors from Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) launched in 1998. Since then, Professor Bernard Ridings and Dr Jean-Marie André have received support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation thanks to an innovative device. , according to Provence : a single-use kit that allows cataracts to be operated on at minimal cost, € 25, in just 10 minutes.
A single-use kit
In 1998, the two specialists in ophthalmology considered a way to make cataract surgery commonplace in the poorest regions. Because the traditional method is much too expensive: the device used to remove a lens is “overpriced”, according to Dr. André. They therefore developed a new technique, the MSICS (manual small incision cataract surgery, or cataract surgery with small manual incision). This drastically reduces costs.
Quickly a second obstacle arises: the sterilization of surgical tools in areas where water and electricity are often lacking. To overcome it, Pr Ridings and Dr André imagine a single-use “kit”, which therefore does not require sterilization. All that remains is to train professionals in this new method. “We started in 2002 in Bamako [au Mali, ndlr] with training in collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille and the West African Health Organization (WAHO) which takes care of the health of 400 million people in 15 countries ”, says Dr André to Provence.
Support from the Bill Gates Foundation
It was then that the movement accelerated for the two doctors, who were contacted by the association HelpMeSee. Funded by the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it has set itself an equally ambitious goal: to eliminate cataract blindness in the world by 2030, by training healthcare professionals on simulators and in training centers.
An ideal partnership for the French, whose objective has always been humanitarian, and was based on the “transfer of technology and [la] training of people on site. This boost is launching a large-scale project: Prof. Ridings and Dr André are integrated into the African component of the HelpMeSee program, and their kits will be distributed on the continent.
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