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Coronavirus Updates
During this time of COVID-19 restrictions, the John A. Moran Eye Center’s Global Outreach Division continues to provide much-needed sight-saving care to Utah’s homeless and underserved communities. We are also working closely with partners on the Navajo Nation to meet urgent and ongoing needs in this remote region safely. Read more about the local outreach efforts.
While travel restrictions prohibit in-person visits to partners outside of the U.S., we continue to reach out to address their needs with teleophthalmology—enabling us to provide remote consultations when needed. We are also actively monitoring and meeting needs for supplies and equipment as well as online education.
Learn more, in the video below, about Moran's work to support sustainable eye care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Problem: Preventable & Curable Blindness
The scope of worldwide blindness is daunting.
According to figures from the World Health Organization there are 39 million blind individuals worldwide and 285 million with some form of visual impairment. Ninety percent of them live in poverty in the developing world. Up to 60 percent of blind children die within one year, and a blind adult will only live two-thirds as long as sighted peers.
Four out of every five blind people could be cured at any modern eye clinic, but those in developing nations lack access to modern eye care—sometimes due to expense, but most often because there aren’t enough doctors. While the United States has 61 ophthalmologists per million people, most developing countries have only one or two per million.
The economic impact of blindness is staggering: for every blind person, 2.5 individuals are lost from the workforce as others must stop work or school to care for their vision-impaired relatives. Lost productivity adds up to $2.7 trillion each year.
Learn more about the scope of worldwide blindness in this short video:
The John A. Moran Eye Center is a proud member of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
Our Solution: Train More Doctors
The Moran Eye Center trains doctors, nurses, and other eye care professionals in more than 25 countries. We bring the most promising international surgeons to Utah for intensive training and send our own American residents abroad.
At medical camps in the field, Moran surgeons restore sight to hundreds of patients in a single week, while also helping local trainees gain experience.
In Utah, we provide charitable care to thousands of individuals without adequate access to care. Our local outreach work is focused primarily on Salt Lake and Summit counties, as well as on the Navajo Nation in southern Utah. Learn more about our work around the world in the map below.
International Outreach
Outreach News
Every year, Moran’s Global Outreach Division provides eye care in developing areas around the world and throughout its home state of Utah.
Whether working at outreach medical eye camps, local hospitals, or community clinics, the Moran team focuses on teaching local physicians to perform surgeries and training local clinicians and staff to perform basic ophthalmic procedures.
Explore the latest news and photos about the Moran Eye Center’s local and international work:
Local Outreach
- Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Expanding and Adapting to Utah’s Eye Health Care Needs
- Moran Expands Outreach Care with Monthly Clinic for Retina Conditions
- New Research Finds Little Progress on Global Blindness in a Decade
- Connecting Fellows to Advance Global Ophthalmology
- Operation Sight Helps Utahns in Need Keep Jobs, Care for Families
- Outreach Team Conducts Vision Screenings for Hundreds of Children during Navajo Nation ‘Teddy Bear’ Clinic (PHOTO GALLERY)
- Saving Sight for Homeless and Low-Income Utahns during Covid-19
- Moran Physicians and Volunteers Provide Vision Screenings and Glasses at Project Homeless Connect (PHOTO GALLERY)
- Moran Expands Care to Resettled Refugees in Utah
- Moran Continues Commitment to Provide Eye Care in Four Corners Region (PHOTO GALLERY)
International Outreach
- Moran Outreach Team and Volunteers Creating Covid-19 Personal Protective Equipment For Haiti and Beyond
- One Man’s Journey of Hope in Tanzania Highlights Moran Eye Center Outreach Care Worldwide
- Moran Team Trains Nurses on Front Lines of Eye Care in Tanzania
- Outreach Mission to Micronesia Helps Build Sustainable Eye Care in Island Nation
- Outreach Division Selected for New World Medical Humanitarian Project Award
- Alan S. Crandall, MD, Returns to South Sudan for Humanitarian Surgery Mission
- Moran Eye Center Continues to Expand Access to Eye Care in Tanzania (PHOTO GALLERY)
Contact Us
Medical Missions
Education Initiatives
lyndsay.dinino@hsc.utah.edu