Geoffrey C. Tabin, MD
Geoffrey C. Tabin, MD, was nominated to receive this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award by the Utah Ophthalmology Society.
In 1995, Dr. Tabin co-founded the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) while working full time as a practicing corneal specialist at the University of Vermont. He managed day-to-day operations of the project in addition to his practice in Vermont, traveling to the Himalayas, arranging for training opportunities for international doctors and placing medical students and residents for electives abroad.
HCP is a nonprofit organization committed to eradicating preventable and curable blindness through high-quality ophthalmic care, education and the establishment of a world-class eye care infrastructure. In addition to restoring sight through surgery and care, an important mission of HCP was to create a sustainable system for eye care delivery by teaching local surgeons and their assistants to organize and perform modern cataract surgery.
Training at the project involves both hospital-based delivery techniques as well as outreach techniques. The surgical method employed allows trainees to provide the benefits of modern cataract surgery without requiring complex instrumentation, expensive consumables or difficult surgical maneuvers. From the onset, HCP and its partner, the Tilganga Eye Centre, recognized the barriers that impeded delivery of cataract care in underserved regions of the developing world. While Western medicine and surgery were moving toward ever-more sophisticated technologies, HCP, Tilganga Eye Centre and partners and colleagues in India (Aravind Eye Hospital and LV Prasad Eye Institute) developed methods of cataract surgery specific to the developing world that yield the same high quality outcome at a fraction of the cost. The cornerstone of this approach is a focus on innovations to drive down cost and complexity while preserving the highest level of safety and outcome.
In 2006, in conjunction with the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center, HCP began working in Ghana, training local ophthalmologists and ophthalmic assistants in modern cataract surgery. Following that training, a team from Ghana trained at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Nepal. Subsequent to these initial trainings, local ophthalmologists have organized and carried out remote eye camps in their respective regions. With this training they are able to bring care to areas where it was previously unavailable. A cataract surgery facility is being planned for Kumasi, Ghana.
In 2007, Dr. Tabin and HCP partnered with The Earth Institute’s Millennium Villages Project (MVP) to provide comprehensive eye care in each of the Millennium Research Villages. MVP was established, in part, to prove that successful implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals was possible in the poorest, most underserved areas of the developing world. They were able to demonstrate that the costs of these services could fit within the UN health budget.
Dr. Tabin led a team, in conjunction with local ophthalmologists from Kumasi, Ghana, conducting an eye care intervention in the village of Bonsaaso, Ghana. During the intervention, 4,600 people were screened, 160 cataract surgeries were performed and approximately 1,100 glasses were distributed.
As one colleague said, "Geoffrey Tabin is a unique individual whose heart is focused upon preventing blindness internationally. He has personally been responsible for this program expanding from Nepal to Bhutan, Tibet, Western China, North Korea and now Africa." For his medical expertise and compassion to eradicating blindness worldwide, the Academy is proud to honor Dr. Tabin with this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award.
