The new pathway explores what it will take to build sustainable cataract care and calls for partnership across the global eye-health community

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- HelpMeSee has launched The Pathway to Eliminating Preventable Cataract Blindness by 2045, outlining the interconnected elements needed to build sustainable cataract care and calling for partnership across the global eye-health community.

The Pathway is being released alongside the Global Summit for Eye Health, taking place November 2 in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). The high-level Summit will bring together government leaders, primarily form the British Commonwealth of Nations international organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), funding institutions and private-sector leaders to advance commitments and action on avoidable sight loss.

Cataract blindness is treatable, yet millions of people continue to live with cataract-related blindness and vision impairment because quality surgical care is not readily accessible around the world. The HelpMeSee backed pathway suggests that eliminating this burden requires looking beyond any single intervention and strengthening the entire system connecting unmet need with sustainable, quality care.

"What happens after a patient is identified as someone who needs cataract surgery? There must be a qualified professional with the skills to treat that patient, a health system that enables them to provide quality care, and a pathway for patients to access those services. Building that capacity requires organizations with different capabilities working together. That is the conversation we want this pathway to advance," says Doug May, HelpMeSee, CEO and President.

From Unmet Need to Sustainable Cataract Care

The Pathway to Eliminating Preventable Cataract Blindness by 2045 identifies a series of interconnected requirements for sustainable progress: identifying unmet cataract need; building a qualified and appropriately distributed surgical workforce; expanding high-quality training capacity; developing and demonstrating surgical competency; supporting transition into live surgery; establishing sustainable local surgical capacity; connecting patients with accessible and affordable quality care; and ultimately increasing effective coverage and reducing untreated cataract blindness.

The framework also recognizes that progress depends on broader conditions including health-system infrastructure, equipment, financing, regulation, mentorship, patient access, measurement, quality assurance, and partnership.

No single organization controls all of these factors.

For HelpMeSee, one of the most critical constraints is the availability of appropriately trained surgical professionals. The organization works with partners to expand access to instructor-led, competency-based cataract surgical training using high-fidelity simulation, standardized curricula, eLearning, assessment and training-management systems.

Simulation allows learners to repeatedly develop transferrable surgical skills in a controlled environment without touching a patient. HelpMeSee views simulation-based training as a way to strengthen, scale and accelerate an important segment of surgical workforce development, and not a replacement, preparing the trainee for a smooth transition to supervised live surgery.

A Call for Partnership

The Pathway is also an invitation to organizations that can contribute different capabilities to the larger global effort.

HelpMeSee is seeking conversations with governments and ministries of health, hospitals and health systems, universities and training institutions, eye-health organizations, NGOs, funders, technology and innovation companies, and clinical partners interested in strengthening sustainable cataract surgical capacity.

Potential collaboration could include expanding cataract surgical training capacity, strengthening national or institutional workforce development, supporting pathways into supervised clinical experience, investing in sustainable training infrastructure, advancing surgical education technology, or integrating workforce development into broader eye-health programs.

"HelpMeSee has an important role to play, but we are only one part of a much larger ecosystem. Our goal is to identify where our capabilities intersect with those of governments, institutions, funders, technology partners and other eye-health organizations so that together we can build sustainable capacity where it is needed most," says Thomas Myhren, Chief of Business Development and Advocacy at HelpMeSee.

The Pathway is intended to begin, rather than conclude, the conversation. HelpMeSee plans to follow the initial framework with additional thought leadership in 2027 examining the data, metrics, actions, and milestones needed to measure progress toward the long-term goal.

No single organization is the pathway. The pathway is what the global eye-health community builds together.

Organizations and delegates interested in exploring the 2045 Pathway, downloading the thought leadership paper or discussing partnership opportunities with HelpMeSee can visit: helpmesee.org/pathway2045

Or contact:
Thomas C. Myhren
Chief of Business Development and Advocacy
partnerships@helpmesee.org

About HelpMeSee

In a world where 100 million people are blind or visually impaired due to cataract, HelpMeSee, a not-for-profit under IRS 501(c)(3), has the global mission to eradicate cataract blindness by increasing the training of Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS). This high quality, very low-cost procedure delivers successful outcomes at a fraction of the cost of alternative procedures. The HelpMeSee MSICS training system features very high-fidelity, virtual reality simulation with realistic haptic feedback, sophisticated competency courseware, learning management systems, and electronic learning aids.

HelpMeSee was founded by Al and Jim Ueltschi, who imagined building the MSICS training system by incorporating many of the methods and techniques used successfully in commercial pilot training. As co-founder of Orbis International where he served as its chairman for 35 years. He founded FlightSafety International, the world's foremost aviation training company. Al Ueltschi was an icon in the aviation industry and was devoted to ending preventable blindness in the developing world. HelpMeSee trains high quality, very low-cost MSICS to ensure that all communities have access to sight restoring affordable treatment. With more than 40 simulators and 19 training centers worldwide, HelpMeSee partners with governments, universities and innovators to fight the global cataract blindness crisis. For more information, visit http://www.helpmesee.org.

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