The John A. Moran Eye Center’s Global Outreach Division provides unique opportunities for trainees to hone their skills as part of its mission to expand access to eye care where it is needed most.
Sponsored by The Alcon Foundation, Belinda Ikpoh, MD, started her global ophthalmology fellowship in Salt Lake City on July 1, 2024. By the end of her international travels, she had worked in three low-resource settings, assisting more than 1,245 patients and training more than 30 physicians, nurses, and technicians.
In Nepal, Ikpoh split her time between the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology and the Hetuda Community Hospital, performing surgeries including small incision cataract surgery (MSICS). In Tanzania at Bugando Medical Center and Benjamin Mkapa Hospital, she focused on teaching phacoemulsification surgery and implementing a daily operating room protocol. There, she also participated in “glaucoma week” events that evaluated a large number of pre-scheduled glaucoma exams for patients with complex conditions. In Guatemala, Ikpoh trained at Vizualiza - Hospital of Oftalmologica and participated in a surgical outreach camp.
“I now feel more confident with doing MSICS independently,” Ikpoh reported after her time in Nepal. “It was also a great experience to participate in the surgical camps and community screenings—to see how the camps are set up, what is assessed, how the day is formatted, and how post-op care is handled.”