Strabismus patient with nurse in Lanzhou, China

China Flying Eye Hospital project goes virtual

A new virtual Flying Eye Hospital project that will train eye care teams in China to fight diabetic retinopathy launches today via our online telemedicine platform, Cybersight.

Generously supported by our long-standing sponsor FedEx, the five-week program in Mandarin aims to build the skills of our Chinese eye health partners in identifying, managing and treating eye disease through live lectures led by world-leading eye health professionals .

Currently, China has one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes as well as the largest number of blind people. With every person living with diabetes at risk of developing the sight threatening condition, combating diabetic retinopathy is one of the biggest global eye health priorities.

Around 10% of China's population (over 100 million people) has diabetes, while roughly 30 million people suffer from diabetic retinopathy and are at risk of becoming blind.

Early detection is key to fighting diabetic retinopathy. Ensuring awareness and education amongst communities as well as access to diabetes tests and routine eye screenings is essential.

Derek Hodkey

President and Chief Executive Officer of Orbis International

As peo­ple live longer lives, as the world’s pop­u­la­tion grows, and as lifestyle changes cause an uptick in con­di­tions like dia­bet­ic retinopa­thy, we are see­ing a grow­ing num­ber of peo­ple around the world with sight-threat­en­ing con­di­tions who need eye care. Respond­ing to this urgent need can­not slow down because of the pan­dem­ic. Sup­port­ers like FedEx make it pos­si­ble for us to con­tin­ue get­ting qual­i­ty oph­thalmic train­ing into the hands of the eye care teams that need it most.”



Slideshow: Orbis's long established collaboration with FedEx

Course Curriculum

Patient Management in DR

September 17, 2021

Updates in DR

September 24, 2021

Laser Treatment in DR

October 8, 2021

Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in DR

October 15, 2021

Diabetic Macular Edema: Diagnosis and Treatment

October 22, 2021


Our History Fighting Blindness in China

Orbis has worked in China since the Flying Eye Hospital visited Guangzhou in 1982. Since establishing an office in Beijing in 1999, our long-term projects have helped create quality, affordable and accessible eye care with a particular focus on rural areas.

Over the years, we have carried out 220 projects in 25 regions in China, trained over 20,000 health workers, conducted over 4.5 million screenings and completed over 130,000 sight-saving operations.

Our Flying Eye Hospital has landed in China over 30 times. 2016 saw the last hands-on Flying Eye Hospital training project take place in Shenyang with a hospital-based training project in Linyi following in 2018.



But as the global COVID-19 pandemic rages on and our in-person Flying Eye Hospital projects are still temporarily paused, we’ve pivoted towards online training via Cybersight, so our world leading Volunteer Faculty can continue to share their skills and fight blindness around the world.

A big thank you to FedEx and our Flying Eye Hospital team for putting together a structured curriculum of virtual ophthalmic training to safely equip our dedicated Chinese eye health partners with the skills and confidence to fight diabetic retinopathy.

Innovating Through Virtual Training

Through Cybersight, we can make an impact in places where a physical presence simply isn't possible due to cost, logistics, security or — a global pandemic.

We have been investing in online training tools for decades and, even prior to the pandemic, had an established network of online training tools and remote lectures and mentors.

Now at an impressive 50,000 users, Cybersight helps eye health professionals – regardless of where they are located – to improve skills, collaborate on diagnosis and treatment of patients, and connect with a truly global community of practice that includes technicians, nurses, optometrists and ophthalmologists.

While our virtual projects are not a direct replacement for hands-on training, it does provide critical training to help our partners deliver emergency eye care especially during these challenging times.

Partnering with The World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness to launch Vision 2020: the Right to Sight in 2005

Thank You

A huge thanks goes to our supporters, donors and partners. It’s thanks to their commitment to our vision that we can continue to innovate and find new ways to use technology to fight blindness.

We’d also like to pay a special mention to our 2021 Flying Eye Hospital project sponsor FedEx, who, for four decades, has helped deliver quality training projects like this to fight blindness around the world.

Donate today!

Help train & teach eye teams around the world virtually during COVID-19

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