ORBIS International

ORBIS International is an international non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) focusing on prevention of blindness and the treatment of eye diseases in developing countries. It is best known for its "flying eye hospital", presently a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. ORBIS is headquartered in New York, with offices in Houston, Ottawa, London, Hong Kong, and Taipei.

In addition to the flying eye hospital, ORBIS operates hospital-based programs in several countries, and works with local medical research and health-care organization on blindness prevention and eye disease treatment. A new program called "Cyber-Sight" uses the Internet to connect ophthalmologists for one-on-one collaboration and mentoring.

ORBIS is a founding partner, along with the World Health Organization, in Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, "a worldwide concerted effort designed to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020."

History
ORBIS was founded in 1982 with a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a number of private donors. The first flying eye hospital was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 (N220RB) donated by United Airlines. The ORBIS jet visited 24 countries in its first two years of operation.

By the late 1980s it was clear that a larger aircraft would be needed. Funded by private donations, ORBIS purchased the DC-10-10 in 1992 and it was placed in service in 1994, and the DC-8 was retired.

The ORBIS DC-10
The ORBIS airborne eye hospital is a DC-10-10 model, and was the second DC-10 aircraft built, in 1970. It was used as a test aircraft by McDonnell Douglas, and then was acquired for passenger service by Laker Airways. It then passed through several hands before its acquisition by ORBIS in 1992 for $14 million, which registered it as N220AU.

Conversion of the aircraft took 18 months and cost a further $15 million. The work was performed by Mobile Aerospace Engineering, Inc. in Mobile, Alabama. It was re-launched on May 7, 1994, and its first operational mission was to Beijing, China on July 23, 1994.

In addition to the flight deck, the aircraft contains (from forward to aft) a classroom, an audio-visual room, the laser room, the operating room, the recovery room, and farthest aft, the communications center. The operating room was placed in the center of the aircraft in order to be the most stable location in case of bad weather at the location.

The classroom accommodates 48 students, who are usually host-country physicians, who can watch surgery being performed in the operating room, or recordings of previous operations. It is also used for lectures and discussions by ORBIS teaching staff.

The audio-visual room is where controls for the 16 cameras, 8 microphones and 54 television monitors are located. These permit viewing of surgery in the classroom and elsewhere on the aircraft. Surgical procedures are recorded, edited and duplicated onboard so that a record of the procedures taught during each program can be donated to the host-country ophthalmic community.

The laser room contains laser-based diagnostic tools and laboratory stations for use with animal-eye surgical practice training.

The lower deck (belly) of the aircraft contains an equipment laboratory and technical center where ORBIS biomedical engineers teach host-country technicians how to maintain and repair ophthalmological equipment.

Other programs
In addition to the flying eye hospital, ORBIS operates permanent programs with local partners in several countries. As of 2005, these included Ethiopia, Bangladesh (in conjunction with Islamia Eye Hospital), China, India, and Vietnam. The programs include developing specialized hospital facilities, eye banks, patient and health care worker training, and prevention and treatment programs.

ORBIS also operates short-term, hospital-based training and specialized treatment programs in places where it is not possible to land the DC-10 aircraft.