Inside the world's only 'flying eye hospital'
SINGAPORE -- This plane is the only "flying eye hospital" in the world.
Run by the non-profit organisation Orbis, it's capable of hosting surgeries to teach doctors how to save people's eyesight in the countries it visits.
The plane was completed in June this year and is the third of its kind. Two previous aircraft have since been retired and are now museum exhibits.
The plane's mission is to carry volunteer doctors to parts of the world, where eye care and facilities may be lacking. Doctors will conduct surgeries on board to train local eye surgeons in new techniques.
It took engineers six years to retrofit the Boeing MD-10 to accommodate features such as a 46-seat classroom, an operating theatre, a recovery room and other scanning and laser eye treatment rooms.
Fresh from its maiden voyage to Shenyang, China, the plane arrived in Singapore this week for maintenance with FedEx Express, which donated the aircraft to Orbis.
The new plane carries upgraded technology such as a 3D camera in its operating theatre's microscope. The surgery can then be watched live in the classroom next door on a 3D TV, as well as remotely via broadcast link to the plane.
On average, the operating theatre hosts around five to seven surgeries a day. The procedures can take up to three times as long because they're meant to be teaching sessions, Orbis explained.
Assoc Prof Ian Yeo, with the Singapore National Eye Centre, has just returned from volunteering his time in Shenyang. He said the standard of ophthalmic equipment in some of the countries that the Orbis plane visits can be decades old.
"It's important to train people to be able to use the equipment that they already have, and we also show them what some of the state-of-the-art technology onboard can do," he said.
Apart from eye surgery, the operating theatre is also equipped to teach anaesthetic practice to local doctors. Nurses on the plane also teach the basics of scrubbing up properly and assisting in surgery, as well as patient after-care.
Since Orbis started its flying eye hospital in 1982, it estimates that it's trained some 325,000 doctors and nurses on the ground, and treated 23 million people in the world.
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
