Himalayan Cataract Project: Eradicating Avoidable Blindness through Medical Innovation, Global Collaboration and Compassionate Capitalism

Himalayan Cataract Project: Eradicating Avoidable Blindness through Medical Innovation, Global Collaboration and Compassionate Capitalism
Case Code: CSRS021
Case Length: 13 Pages
Period:
Pub Date: 2025
Teaching Note: Available
 Price: Rs.400
Organization: The Himalayan Cataract Project Cureblindness
Industry: Healthcare and Services
Countries: United States
Themes: Healthcare, Social Enterprise
Himalayan Cataract Project: Eradicating Avoidable Blindness through Medical Innovation, Global Collaboration and Compassionate Capitalism
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, cataracts are the leading cause of vision impairment. The burden of cataracts was high among the people in middle and low-income countries. Apart from aging, malnutrition, exposure to ultraviolet rays for a long time, altitudes, and weather were the causes for the prevalence of cataract among these people. Cataracts needed a surgical procedure in which the cataract was extracted from behind the cornea, and an intraocular lens (IOL) was placed. This restored the vision of the patients. This procedure was expensive due to the high cost of the IOLs, the equipment required, and the procedure involved. Its availability was limited to a few secondary and tertiary care facilities in a few countries.

Dr. Sanduk Ruit from Nepal and Dr. Geoffry Tabin (Tabin) from the USA addressed these challenges through their non-profit organization, Himalayan Cataract Project Cureblindness (HCP). Over three decades, they restored the vision of more than 1.4 million people. HCP used an IOL and a procedure that Ruit developed, altogether costing US$ 20. Through its outreach camps, it performed surgeries in Nepal's hinterlands. The doctors realized, though, that their reach was limited, and to address the challenge of preventable blindness, they needed to transfer their knowledge to local doctors worldwide. HCP developed local capacity in several countries by training doctors, optometrists, and staff. It also developed infrastructure in several countries to provide high-quality patient care. HCP trained over 19,500 eye care professionals and provided basic treatment to 14.5 million people. Its timely interventions were successful in preventing blindness among thousands of people. As HCP continued to expand its operations, there was much that remained to be done. With the global burden of cataracts expected to increase further due to climatic changes and global warming, HCP needed to expand rapidly to reverse the rate of blindness in middle-income and poor countries.

Issues

The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:

  • Characterize the attributes of quality healthcare service providers.
  • Build an integrated people-centered eye care system.
  • Devise ways to scale up health service delivery for the poor
  • Draw a metric for measuring the efficiency of a healthcare non-profit organization

Contents

Keywords

healthcare service; people-centered healthcare; health service delivery; middle and low-income countries; vision impairment; SCALERS Model; Philanthropic Investment Per Pair;the Himalayan Cataract Project Cureblindness

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