Dear HIFA colleagues,
To respond to Q7. Do patients and the general population have access to reliable information about cataract and cataract surgery?
People in HICs have readily available reliable healthcare information on all common disease burdens, including cataract and other eye conditions.
This is possible due to investments by the government and stakeholders to support the dissemination of evidence-based healthcare information.
In LMICs, people have little or no reliable healthcare information on several diseases that they can trust.
The most popular and easily understood, and very often not evidence-based, scientific information is readily available through social media platforms and community discussion groups on people’s experiences of having had cataract surgery, which is accepted with trust.
This results in delays in seeking care and being unable to be part of decision-making through evidence-based treatment, perioperative care, and home care. Inability to comprehend scientific knowledge has a serious socio-economic impact not only on the patient but also on the larger community.
Best wishes
Dr. Meena Nathan Cherian, MBBS, MD (Anaesthesia)
(Former WHO Lead Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program, Geneva, Switzerland).
Director, Global Health New Challenges: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education & Research, Switzerland. www.gfmer.ch/surgery/cancer.htm (NSA-WHO)
Senior Advisor Global Action International Society of Geriatric Oncology Permanent Committees - SIOG
Senior Advisor, International College of Surgeons-Global Affairs. https://icsglobal.org/ (NSA-WHO)
Adjunct Prof.The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen,China. https://med.cuhk.edu.cn/en/teacher/371
WHO-HIFA Essential Health Services; mHEALTH-INNOVATE. www.hifa.org (NSA-WHO).
Geneva, Switzerland. +41 763837253(m); cherianm15@gmail.com
HIFA profile: Dr Meena Nathan Cherian was a professor of anaesthesiology from Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India. She trained, worked, and taught in several countries, USA (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Southeast Asia and Africa. She worked at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, as the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program Lead where she created the ‘surgical care’ program resulting in the first World Health Assembly Resolution on ‘Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and Anaesthesia in the context of Universal Health Coverage’. Currently she works as the Director, Global Health New Challenges program, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Geneva, Switzerland; Adjunct Prof. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China; Senior Advisor, Global Action, International Society of Geriatric Oncology, Switzerland; Member of the WHO-HIFA Working Group on Essential Health Services and COVID-19; and HIFA mHEALTH-INNOVATE Working Group. She is a member of the HIFA Steering Group. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/meena and Spotlight working group on Patient Safety and NCDs. cherianm15 AT gmail.com