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Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cybersight and Dr. Eugene Helveston
Establish the "Dr. Helveston Pediatric Conference" on Cybersight.
In recognition of Dr. Helveston and his contribution to global ophthalmology, Orbis aims to raise $200,000 to establish the annual “Dr. Helveston Pediatric Conference” on Cybersight. The conference will bring together the foremost minds in pediatric ophthalmology.
Ways to Support
Dr. Helveston
In 1998, decades ahead of his time, Dr. Eugene Helveston, then part of Orbis Volunteer Faculty, created the first ever internet-based ophthalmic telemedicine program. Five years later, Cybersight paved the way for landmark changes in ophthalmic education.
During program visits to Havana, Cuba, Dr. Helveston realized that it wasn’t enough to drop in and fly out again, the committed doctors needed ongoing support. Having already experimented with remote consultations, he along with Orbis team members, set about training local colleagues with digital imagery and clinical history recording. This would allow him to consult on cases via email.
In doing so, Orbis’s first ophthalmic telemedicine system was born.
Dr. Eugene Helveston with local eye doctors in Havana, Cuba, 1998.
Cybersight
At Orbis, our world-renowned Volunteer Faculty are the heartbeat of our training programs, both on the Flying Eye Hospital and in partner hospitals. Incredible supporters like you are essential to our work of training and inspiring eye care teams to fight blindness around the world.
This year, at our annual Orbis gala on October 19 in New York City, we will recognize a very special Volunteer Faculty member – Dr. Gene Helveston! An expert in his field of pediatric ophthalmology,
Dr. Helveston was instrumental in bringing to life Cybersight, one of our most important tools.
Cybersight has dramatically increased our ability to provide training and support to local partners in places where a physical presence simply isn't possible due to cost, logistics, or security. As the pandemic unfolded, we were ready to meet the needs of eye care professionals throughout the world – virtually. In the past four years, the number of users has grown 950%.
Ophthalmologists like Dr. Molinari and Dr. Battsetseg use Cybersight to both help other medical professionals, and receive help themselves.
Stories From Volunteer Faculty
Dr. Andrea Molinari has worked alongside Dr. Helveston and Orbis since the early 2000s during the inception of Cybersight. Once a student, Dr. Molinari now teaches her Cybersight lectures and lessons for eye care professionals around the world.
Dr. Molinari has a message for Dr. Helveston.
““When I moved to Quito, Ecuador I was the only Ophthalmologist with an exclusive practice in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. I had good training but little experience and unfortunately, nobody in Ecuador to consult my difficult cases. I had the opportunity to communicate with Dr. Helveston, one of the great mentors in Strabismus at that time. This gave me the possibility to consult with him and thus was able to provide my patients with better care. I consulted more than a hundred difficult cases through Cybersight with him and also had the honor of having Dr. Helveston work with me in Ecuador on some of these surgical cases. Eventually, I later became a mentor myself for Cybersight.””Dr. Andrea Molinari
