Samsung Electronics demonstrates one yr of progress in offering elevated entry to eye care in Morocco, India and Papua New Guinea via the upcycling of Galaxy expertise
The theme of this yr’s World Well being Day — Our Planet, Our Well being — demonstrates the understanding that human well being is deeply interconnected with environmental well being. By means of the Galaxy Upcycling program, Samsung Electronics has been on a mission to develop revolutionary, sustainable practices that not solely protect the planet’s sources but additionally bridge boundaries to accessible and inexpensive well being care.
In recognition of World Well being Day, Samsung Newsroom is trying again on the first yr of this system’s implementation, which has upcycled a whole lot of secondhand Galaxy gadgets and offered fundamental eye take care of over 3,000 sufferers in Morocco, India and Papua New Guinea.
Upcycling Galaxy Expertise Into Analysis Cameras
Globally, 1.1 billion people endure from imaginative and prescient loss — 90% of which reside in low- and middle-income nations and lack entry to inexpensive and high quality eye well being care. To handle this, Samsung has partnered with the Worldwide Company for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and Yonsei College Well being System (YUHS) to remodel outdated and unused Galaxy expertise into medical analysis cameras referred to as EYELIKE™ fundus cameras, which permit each medical and non-medical professionals to display sufferers for situations that will result in blindness.
“We’re happy with our staff at Samsung who helped infuse upcycled expertise to diagnose visible impairment in sufferers via the EYELIKE™ platform,” stated Dr. Aloknath De, Govt Consulting Director, Open Innovation of Samsung R&D Institute in Bangalore.
Establishing Accessible Eye Care Providers in Morocco
Because the introduction of EYELIKE™ in Morocco, Samsung has partnered with World Care and 21 different organizations — together with public well being facilities and personal clinics — to repurpose 60 models of older smartphones into the EYELIKE™ Fundus Digicam.
“In Morocco, we lack medical personnel and ophthalmic medical gear, so I’m optimistic EYELIKE™ will deliver large advantages — particularly to sufferers who reside in distant areas,” stated optician Mohcine Ait Hida.
Native optometrists have been utilizing the digicam to display over 2,028 sufferers and supply post-diagnosis care, together with prescribing glasses for 128 folks, scheduling follow-up appointments with 205 folks and connecting 50 folks to eye hospitals for added medical therapy.
Conducting Affected person Outreach Applications in India
Recognizing that blindness is a prevailing downside in India, Samsung has upcycled almost 200 models of secondhand smartphones and offered them to native hospitals. This revolutionary strategy has proved to be a breakthrough for sufferers like Jamuna Prasad who has been repeatedly prescribed glasses for his declining eyesight for over a yr. After his eyes have been checked with the EYELIKE™ Fundus Digicam on the Major Eye Care Middle at Sitapur Eye Hospital, he lastly acquired an accurate analysis of diabetic retinopathy. In line with his optometrists, Jamuna’s eyesight has been enhancing ever since.
On the similar time, many sufferers dwelling in distant communities don’t at all times have the identical entry that Jamuna Prasad needed to a imaginative and prescient middle. Due to the moveable nature of the cameras, optometrists can journey to distant villages via outreach applications and display folks for potential eye ailments. On account of the EYELIKE™ Fundus Digicam, over 1,000 sufferers in India have acquired screenings via each native medical establishments and outreach applications.
Coaching Medical Employees in Papua New Guinea
In Papua New Guinea, well being care services usually battle to seek out skilled eye docs and very important gear crucial for treating retinal ailments. This example is just being exacerbated by the prevalence of blindness throughout the nation. For a inhabitants of over 9 million, there are solely 14 trained ophthalmologists and three fundus cameras nationwide.
“Due to the partnership program and the EYELIKE™ fundus cameras, we now have sufficient cameras to broaden care and screening companies on a nationwide scale,” stated Dr. Jambi Garap, President of the Nationwide Prevention of Blindness Committee and the Lecturer in Ophthalmology at College of Papua New Guinea. “We’re presently coaching docs in hopes that they will help diagnose sufferers nationally and enhance folks’s understanding of the sicknesses they’ve.”
The EYELIKE™ program helps to fill the well being fairness hole by coaching docs and different clinic employees, even in rural communities, to display sufferers utilizing the machine. Regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions inflicting a delay in affected person screenings, Dr. Garap seems to be ahead to resuming these screenings this yr. She hopes to dispatch extra trainers to rural communities to offer employees with additional coaching, along with conducting analysis on uncommon eye problems equivalent to Eales illness with the EYELIKE™ gadgets.
Advancing Samsung’s Sustainability Imaginative and prescient
As a part of its mission to harness expertise for good by positively impacting each folks and the planet, Samsung plans to raise this partnership via steady technical help and open collaboration to permit for the continued nationwide coaching and screening of sufferers.
Samsung is devoted to delivering revolutionary applied sciences that assist construct a greater future and empower customers to undertake extra sustainable practices. This additionally contains taking tangible actions to scale back our environmental affect and reshape shopper experiences via our sustainability platform, Galaxy for the Planet. EYELIKE™ particularly helps Samsung reduce its environmental affect by supporting its aim to attain zero waste to landfills and scale back e-waste by 2025.
About Worldwide Company for the Prevention of Blindness
Worldwide Company for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is the overarching alliance for the worldwide eye well being sector, with greater than 150 organizations in over 100 nations working collectively for a world the place everybody has common entry to eye care. IAPB focuses on advocacy efforts to unite the sector behind the suggestions of the World Report on Imaginative and prescient and the Sustainable Improvement Objectives.
About Yonsei College Well being System
Yonsei College Well being System (YUHS) is the primary trendy medical establishment in South Korea, and it has been a number one medical establishment within the nation for greater than 130 years. Severance Hospital and Yonsei College Faculty of Drugs are a part of the Yonsei College Well being System.
