Two American ophthalmologists donated eye implants and operated on patients at the Tzu Chi Eye Center on 18 to 23 May as part of a medical exchange program between the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Visual Sciences (UWM-DoVS) and the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines.
Dr. Christine Larsen, a distinguished professor and specialist in glaucoma and cataracts, and UWM-DoVS resident Dr. Rush Mankad handed over iStent implants to Tzu Chi Eye Center volunteer ophthalmologist Dr. Catherine Qui-Macaraig, an alumna of the UWM-DoVS Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Fellowship Program.
The small devices are used for helping reduce the risk of glaucoma progression and significant vision loss in patients.
Larsen also guided Tzu Chi’s volunteer glaucoma specialists in performing iStent implant surgery.
“The work Tzu Chi is doing to help prevent blindness has been incredible, so I hope they will be able to continue to utilize these devices in those efforts,” Larsen said, according to a Facebook post of Tzu Chi.
Mankad also performed surgery on other local patients who came from distant communities and very early to the center.
“When I take care of patients back home, I will remember that we are providing a very big gift of vision and eye care,” Mankad said.
The longstanding partnership between Tzu Chi and the UWM-DoVS aims to advance studies in the field of ophthalmology while providing much-needed eye care to disadvantaged patients.
Qui-Macaraig, an alumna of the UWM-DoVS Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Fellowship Program, emphasized the collaboration’s significance: “When we become better as ophthalmologists, it benefits our patients.”