The medtech imaging and data solutions company Heidelberg Engineering and sightsaving nonprofit Orbis have come together on board the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital during its latest programme in Kigali, Rwanda, to announce the expansion of their collaboration in making educational content accessible to eye care professionals worldwide and advancing clinical research for better patient outcomes.
As part of a newly announced clinical project in Lusaka, Zambia, Heidelberg Engineering will deploy its advanced multi-disciplinary imaging platform optimised for the anterior segment, ANTERION, to support patient pre-op imaging and to generate robust, data-driven evidence required for the integration of optical biometry into routine cataract surgery protocols.
The announcement was made in a recorded video conversation featuring Kfir Azoulay, Managing Director of Heidelberg Engineering, and Dr Hunter Cherwek, Vice President, Clinical Services and Technologies, at Orbis International.
The recording was made on board the Orbis Flying Hospital, the world’s only fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board a plane—highlighting both organisations’ shared commitment to tackling avoidable vision loss and improving eye health services in underserved areas. The conversation covered a range of topics, including:
- How Cybersight—Orbis’s free, award-winning telemedicine and e-learning platform—is helping tens of thousands of eye care professionals around the world build their skills, with support from Heidelberg Engineering.
- How new technologies like artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and remote diagnostic tools are opening up access to quality eye care, especially in communities with limited resources.
- A look inside the Flying Eye Hospital’s project in Rwanda, where local medical teams gained valuable skills through hands-on training and virtual learning—both aboard the aircraft and at partner hospitals.
- The biggest challenges facing eye care in underserved regions, and how organisations can work together to ensure that life-changing treatments reach more people who need them.
Video Quotes
Kfir Azoulay: “I’m honored to have been invited to visit the Flying Eye Hospital while in Kigali, Rwanda, and to jointly make the announcement about the expansion of the collaboration between Orbis and Heidelberg Engineering.
“With the launch of the new clinical programme in Lusaka, Zambia, Orbis and Heidelberg Engineering aim to support more equitable, democratised access to advanced eye care. By leveraging Heidelberg’s advanced imaging technologies, we seek to document real-world improvements in surgical outcomes through high-resolution imaging and precise preoperative measurements.
“At the same time, we will gather data from traditionally underserved populations to help address algorithmic bias in AI systems that too often overlook patients in remote or emerging economy settings. It is our joint aspiration to foster more inclusive innovation and ensure clinicians everywhere have the tools to deliver the best possible care.”
Dr Hunter Cherwek: “Orbis was founded on combining innovation and ophthalmology. And we still do that today with our work at the confluence of technology and training. I love how much the field of ophthalmology has grown and how Orbis is globalising that technology, whether its artificial intelligence, telemedicine or distance learning.
“One of our goals is to find and distribute not just knowledge but force-multipliers. How can you find a piece of technology that can take the teaching of one doctor and have it reach the entire world? So really, we are very similar companies. We are trying to improve not just patient outcomes and patient care but also physician training. We both recognise that it takes a team to deliver the best eye care, so both of us work on team training.”
Sight-Saving Support
This collaboration builds on a successful partnership in 2024, during which Heidelberg Engineering:
- Funded four high-impact Cybersight webinars, joined over 2,000 times by practitioners in countries including Afghanistan, Somalia, and Ukraine.
- Supported Orbis research into retinoblastoma, a life-threatening childhood eye cancer, showing that telemedicine significantly improves diagnosis and survival outcomes.
In 2025, Heidelberg Engineering continues to fund a new series of four live Cybersight training sessions. The next webinar will be:
- 9th October 2025, 1:00PM UTC – Enhancing Cataract Surgery Outcomes with Surgical Technologies & Techniques (sign up here)
Details for the next sessions will be released in due course on the Cybersight website.
Orbis has been transforming lives through the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness for over four decades. With a network of partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the nonprofit is working to make eye care available everywhere, for everyone, so that no one has to experience the consequences of avoidable blindness and sight loss.
About Orbis
Orbis works around the world to prevent blindness and restore sight for people in places where eye care is out of reach—so vision problems don’t make it harder to learn, earn a living, or enjoy life. Around 1.1 billion people live with vision loss, but with the right care, 90% of it is completely avoidable. That is why Orbis trains doctors, nurses, and other eye care professionals to provide care in their own communities—and works to make sure people of all ages can access the eye exams, glasses, medicine, and surgeries they need to protect and restore their sight. Orbis operates the world’s only Flying Eye Hospital, a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board an MD-10 aircraft, and an award-winning telemedicine platform, Cybersight. www.orbis.org.uk
