The Global re-Vision Network

CLICK HERE to see a brief GLOBAL re-VISION VIDEO

HOW A CLINIC "WORKS"
ITS MANY USES...

PATIENTS IN THE WAITING AREA OUTSIDE THE CLINIC OF VISUAL HEALTH - "SEE WELL TO LIVE BETTER" IN MÉRIDA, YUCATÁN, MEXICO

The GLOBAL re-VISION Network's model Clinic of Visual Health "See Well to Live Better" opened in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico in November, 2006. We partneredand worked with the state government's health and human services agency DIF Yucatán.

GLOBAL re-VISION provided the concept, electronic diagnostic equipment, the computer and special operating program, set-up, installation, and worker training. 80,000 pairs of used eyeglasses and cases were sent from the U.S. to supply the clinic. DIF Yucatán provided the clinic facility, renovations and employs the full-time workers.

EYEGLASSES PROCESSING
(OR...click GLOBAL re-VISION Video box above-left to watch them prepared)


CLINIC WORKER DIANA (SEATED) AND CLINIC MANAGER LUISA (STANDING) USE A NIDEK LENSOMETER TO DETERMINE THE PRESCRIPTION INFORMATION OF A PAIR OF GLASSES PRIOR TO PUTTING THEM INTO INVENTORY. THE LENSOMETER AUTOMATICALLY TRANSMITS THE INFORMATION TO THE COMPUTER DATABASE AND A PRINTER TO PRODUCE AN INVENTORY CARD THAT GOES INTO THE PLASTIC BAG WITH EACH PAIR OF EYEGLASSES.

Eyeglasses received at the clinic are first cleaned and sterilized. Then each pair is analyzed using a Lensometer-a device that electronically "reads" the prescription of an eyeglasses' lens. That information is then transmitted-to-and-stored in the computer's memory. The computer automatically assigns a warehouse storage location for each pair of eyeglasses so it can later be located and retrieved when a patient needs a pair with that specific prescription.

EYEGLASSES DISPENSING
(OR...click GLOBAL re-VISION Video box above-left)

$Auto Refractor$

A NIDEK AUTO REFRACTOR IS BEING USED TO ANALYSE THIS MAYAN WOMAN'S VISION AND DETERMINE HER EYEGLASSES PRESCRIPTION. THIS ENTIRE ELECTRONIC DIAGNOSTIC PROCESS TAKES ONLY A FRACTION OF A SECOND PER EYE.

Patient vision prescriptions are instantly and accurately determined using an Auto Refractor - a device that electronically "photographs" the inside shape of an eyeball and calculates the eyeglasses prescription needed to correct vision in that eye. The patient's prescription is entered into the computer which then displays the storage location(s) of all inventoried eyeglasses meeting that patient's exact need. The glasses are retrieved from storage and adjusted to the patient. The entire process takes only minutes per person.

BIG smiles AND tears of gratitude occur daily at the Clinica.

CATARACT SCREENING

We establish GLOBAL re-VISION clinics with the specific goal of using our system to distribute recycled eyeglasses to quickly and accurately correct refractive error. Inasmuch as these clinics provide a remedy for 95% of all vision impairments, it is our conviction that ministering to the "other 5%" should become the prevue of others. Once established, clinics are administered by local government health agencies. In Mérida, that is DIF Yucatán.

Very soon after the Mérida clinic began seeing patients on February 1, 2007, DIF Yucatán administrators recognized that the clinic could also provide a locale to screen patients for cataracts, and they began doing so later in the year. The government took the initiative to find doctors, funding, and hospital facilities principally because the clinic provided them with a logical screening venue. As a result, 26 people received free cataract surgeries in 2007. Many more will in coming years.

Cataracts are the world's number 2 vision impairment following refractive error insofar as the number of people afflicted globally. When clinics remedy BOTH refractive error AND cataracts, they are mitigating almost 98% of all the vision impairments afflicting the poor.

We encourage ALL our future collaborators to have the foresight and compassion of our friends at DIF Yucatán, and hope they will take the initiative to build-on the additional promises these clinics provide.

CLINICS AS "STAGING" CENTERS FOR MISSION TRIPS

Our computer system's special program was designed to database two separate eyeglasses inventories.

The primary inventory is used on a daily basis by the clinic workers to provide eyeglasses to patients at the clinic as described above.

The secondary inventory - the establishment and use of which is entirely optional by the clinic administrators - is a separate collection of eyeglasses with its own separate computer database (both are maintained in the same computer). The second eyeglasses inventory can be created and maintained for use by "mission" groups from abroad traveling into an area near the clinic. It is designed to be a "portable" inventory that can be taken from the clinic by the mission workers to supply them with glasses in more remote, outlying areas.

The "purpose" of this secondary inventory is to minimize the logistical and customs problems normally encountered by groups crossing borders with equipment and glasses. These inventories can be shipped in advance, maintained by the clinic personnel, and the un-used eyeglasses simply returned to the clinic for...either for use by future mission groups or to simply help supply the clinic with additional eyeglasses (which they would subsequently enter into their primary inventory).