HelpMeSee, a global campaign to eliminate cataract blindness – proudly shares the work of the Pilotfish design team as they are awarded the Good Industrial Design Award for 2014 for the HelpMeSee Eye Surgery Simulator.
The Eye Surgery Simulator, which is being developed for HelpMeSee by Moog Inc. (NYSE: MOG.A and MOG.B), will be used to train 30,000 cataract surgical specialists in developing countries to perform the MSICS procedure within two decades. This will enable them to perform 3 – 5 million high-quality cataract surgeries each year at the most affordable prices, thus eliminating cataract blindness.
“We are proud of all our partners involved in creating this cutting-edge and life-changing medical technology,” said Jacob Mohan Thazhathu, President & CEO, HelpMeSee. “The high fidelity simulator technology we are developing will allow us to train the thousands of specialists needed to address this global public health crisis.”
Inspiring the HelpMeSee campaign is the tragic fact that 20 million people suffer from cataract blindness, even though a proven treatment already exists. Another 167 million people suffer from cataract-induced visual impairment, most of them living in developing countries.
HelpMeSee selected Moog to design and produce the high-fidelity virtual reality MSICS Simulator jointly with SenseGraphics and InSimo. HelpMeSee selected Moog in 2013 due to its strong engineering capability and experience designing and building simulator systems and high-level haptic force feedback technology. Moog Industrial Group, a division of Moog Inc., designs and manufactures high-performance motion control solutions in a range of industrial applications including simulation systems for pilot, medical and dental training.
Pilotfish leads the industrial design of the simulator, working in close collaboration with the Moog and HelpMeSee teams to fully incorporate all of the surgical, production and user considerations.
A video preview of a simulator prototype is available below:
MSICS Virtual Reality Surgical Training Simulator (Proof of Concept)
Global Impact of Cataract Blindness
Cataract blindness has a range of effects, from creating severe social burdens for families to placing economic burdens on their caretakers and communities. Avoidable cataract blindness mostly affects people living in austere regions under impoverished circumstances, limiting their access to affordable, high-quality care. Through public healthcare collaborations, dedicated institutions and active individuals can help achieve a goal that will impact millions of people around the world.
About HelpMeSee
HelpMeSee is a global campaign to eliminate cataract blindness endemic in developing countries. The HelpMeSee mission is to make sight-restoring, MSIC surgery available to millions of underserved people through financial support and the training of thousands of highly skilled cataract specialists recruited from within their communities. HelpMeSee has designed and is now producing a virtual reality surgical simulator and training program to be implemented worldwide, adapted from extensive experience in simulator-based aviation training.
