Avoidable blindness highlighted as part of WCM-Q student visit to Orbis
From left to right – Dr. Mohamud Verjee, Reem Chamseddine, Lina Al-Ani, and Omna Sharma.
A group of medical students from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) visited the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. This global charitable initiative focuses on delivering specialist training, treatments, and awareness of the importance of eye health.
The students included Reem Chamseddine and Omna Sharma (Class of 2023), Noor Al-Nassr (Class of 2024), and Noor Al-Qatabri and Lina Al-Ani (Class of 2025). The students were accompanied by Dr. Mohamud Verjee, assistant dean for student affairs, associate professor of family medicine, and co-director of the primary care clerkship at WCM-Q.
The visit is of particular medical and educational importance, given that at least 2.2 billion people worldwide have a near or distant vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Even more alarming is that vision impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed in at least 1 billion—or almost half—of these cases.
Furthermore, although most people with vision impairment and blindness are over the age of 50 years, vision loss can affect people of all ages.
Dr. Verjee said: “As we help prepare our future doctors, we must continue to offer our students opportunities beyond the classroom and help them gain greater awareness and understanding of the on-the-ground reality of many important medical topics, such as preventable and treatable blindness. Supporting such inspirational initiatives is also critical, so I am delighted to say that a donation for cataract surgery has been made on behalf of the students.”
Operated by global eye health charity Orbis, the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is a fully-equipped MD-10 cargo aircraft with state-of-the-art medical equipment, an operating theater and a classroom, making it a truly unique teaching facility. Orbis has been offering prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness for four decades. With a close network of partners, Orbis mentors train local eye care teams—from community workers to doctors and nurses—to save and restore vision in their communities.