HelpMeSee

HelpMeSee is proud of the patient-centered approach to our mission. The patient care delivery model includes several key components that will ensure that everyone who needs help receives it, and that they receive the best possible care.

HelpMeSee recruits best in class, highly trained surgical partners. Once chosen, our surgical partners are required to follow strict safety and quality standards. HelpMeSee’s single-use, pre-sterilized MSICS surgical kits are just one example. The kits are distributed to our partners and use will reduce post-operative complications and infection rates, particularly when surgeries are performed in remote environments with limited resources and power for proper sterilization techniques.

$50 USD—One adult surgery (single eye)
$350 USD—One child surgery (single eye)

HelpMeSee promotes patient centered standards and requires partners to follow appropriate patient care standards. The Quality Assurance (QA) Guidelines describe HMS minimum standards for surgical safety and excellence. It is the responsibility of the partner to determine how best to use these standards as a guideline for each specific situation where HelpMeSee funding will be used. However, these guidelines do not supersede or replace the partner’s own medical judgment of any local medical care standards or licensure requirements.

The QA Guidelines cover general safety and sterility requirements, patient selection criteria, and specific considerations for local and general anesthetic Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgical (MSICS) cases. HMS places the highest priority on the safety of the patients and staff, as well as the quality of surgical outcomes.

Though these guidelines cannot guarantee success, HelpMeSee expects partners to demonstrate the due diligence needed to ensure safe and effective surgery and to provide for the ongoing review and improvement of the quality of care.

MSICS is a highly effective, low-cost method of saving or restoring sight. However, the per surgery costs paid to partner surgeons do not reflect the costs involved in establishing a medical practice in a remote region which will be necessary to reach everyone in need. HelpMeSee provides start-up funding to newly trained MSICS specialists willing to set up clinics in areas of high need. All trained MSICS specialists will have the necessary skills and support to establish their own surgical practices to deliver 2,500 high quality cataract surgeries yearly. This will provide financial independence, employ additional personnel, and create a positive and enduring presence within their communities.

$15,000 USD—Clinic Start-Up Funding
$102,000 USD—New Clinic (Ground Up)
$42,000 USD—Clinic Annual Operating Costs

A critical component to delivery of HelpMeSee’s mission is community-based mobilization. Such strategies have been successfully developed and proven for the elimination of other diseases—such as smallpox in India, as detailed in the book House on Fire by William H. Foege, where it was described as "a spectacular triumph of medicine and public health.” An adapted version is now being implemented by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF for the eradication of polio in India. In the countries where we work, HelpMeSee will utilize this proven method by:
• Mapping remote communities and locations in least served geographic regions
• Assigning one community mobilizer to each defined geographic area with a population of 250,000
• Equipping community health workers with handheld Android devices

The Android handheld devices will allow community health workers to:
• Locate patients
• Ensure optimal positioning of MSICS providers
• Build community awareness
• Schedule, screening,patient selection and surgical services
• Facilitate post-surgical follow-up

The availability of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology at this critical point in HelpMeSee’s story will allow us—with the help of community health workers—to capture data about the exact locations of each cataract patient we encounter as well as help us pinpoint the nearest HelpMeSee partner. In turn, the partners will be able to store and add to the data as the individual becomes a patient. Finally, HelpMeSee can analyze all of the data, ultimately having a clear picture of the prevalence, distribution, surgical rate and, ultimately, the success of the HelpMeSee campaign toward the elimination of cataract blindness around the world.

Community Mobilization Geographic Positioning and Patient Information Systems (GPPIS) Costs
Incentive paid to community healthworkers ($0.75 per patient per 1M patients): $750,000
Technology costs (handheld devices, network, IP network): $500,000
HelpMeSee GPPIS Android APP and cloud-based hardware and server costs: $750,000
Total: $2,000,000

A well-designed training system and curriculum is required for effective and efficient training. HelpMeSee’s innovative Training Management System (TMS) is a platform that can be modified for use within any industry and for use across a variety of training needs. Our flexible software allows users to create highly customized eLearning units and features highly interactive tools that allow trainers and trainees to get the most from the system—and each other.

Our integrated system is rich with features, including:
• Standard roles
• Flexible privileges
• Author multiple programs geared toward different audiences
• Create new assignments via a wizard-driven system
• Create curriculum
• Build assignment workflow
• Standardized curriculum developed and/or customized for each training need
• Able to publish approved new units and make updates available to end users
• Digital asset library

Empower our instructors with standardized training resources, training tools and performance data:
• Demonstrate assignment—up to 4 trainees
• Customize assignment (as per assignment specifications)
• View real time assignment attempts on TMS display (of the trainee)
• Access enhanced performance data (Instructor tab)
• Access to additional functions to customize the assignment attempt using the TMS display (of the trainee), e.g. activate a challenge during an attempt, use training tools such as pointers, scale (Instructor tab), mark cue points
• Replay attempts
• View performance data—real time and post attempt
• View performance history (using SBLS)
• Override standard flow—for differentiation
• Use open assignments—create nonstandard assignments on the fly for quick demonstration and differentiation of training

We ensure our trainees get the most out of their eLearning experience by allowing them to:
• View list of enrolled program(s)
• Perform assignments
• Individualized training—computer guided activation of assignments to maintain standards, flow based on individual accomplishment and demonstration of proficiency
• View demonstrations by instructor in 3D (using exceptional setup in the lab or within each simulator pod)
• View attempt videos on TMS display (peers and instructor)
• View real time and post-attempt performance parameters
• Evaluation of performance—both objective and subjective (supported with entry by instructors). Can also be scored
• Feedback—based on the evaluation
• Access to support of training tools such as guidelines, OV, real time alerts, error tones, feedback metrics, etc.
• View reports
• Flag attempts and add comments
• Review performance history

The estimated training cost is $12,000 per student. Will vary based on countries/ regions and duration of training.

Within the next 20 years, HelpMeSee aims to train 30,000 highly skilled cataract surgical specialists at training centers established by the organization. Trainee competence will be determined by objective measurements of skills, training, and independent validation. The project would also train nurses, administrative assistants, and technicians skilled in specialized areas relating to cataract surgery. Each surgical specialist will be capable of delivering at least 2,500 high quality cataract surgeries per year, leading to vision restoration for millions of underprivileged visually impaired and blind people, while eliminating the current backlog of cataract blindness globally.

HelpMeSee plans to establish 6–7 training centers across the world wherein aspiring cataract surgical specialists can enroll and undergo a thorough proficiency based training program on Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS).

Contingent on each individual’s background and experience, a trainee will be able to reach proficiency in MSICS within six months. A distinctive feature of the HelpMeSee training program is the use of an innovative, high fidelity MSICS surgical simulator. The simulator will utilize the same training methodologies and principles that have proven to be highly effective in the field of aviation for training pilots.

The HelpMeSee MSICS simulator is a high fidelity surgical simulation system that will allow simulation of the entire MSICS procedure and enable comprehensive training in a wide range of scenarios for pre-existing patient characteristics. The simulator will also have a range of more than 200 errors, challenges, and complication scenarios that the surgeons may face in the operating room during live cataract surgery. The well-designed curriculum and instructional delivery system for effective use of the HelpMeSee MSICS simulator will result in successful training of the thousands of cataract surgical specialists necessary to eliminate the backlog of blindness due to cataracts. Instructional activities will include simulator lab practice in an immersive simulation lab,classroom instruction, lab activity, self-study and live mentored surgeries performed at surgical partner sites.

Cataract Surgical Specialist Trainees are expected to undergo around 400 to 700 hours of learning based on their prior knowledge and skills. 60% of this time will be spent on simulator practice and evaluation, 20% on classroom instruction and lab activity, and 20% on self-study.

HelpMeSee is designing, developing and manufacturing a virtual reality simulator and courseware to train cataract surgical specialists in Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS). The design calls to achieve a level of realism that is virtually indistinguishable from live surgery performed by an experienced surgeon. This will replace traditional MSICS training with simulator-based proficiency training rather than using it as an adjunct to live training. HelpMeSee is applying the aviation FAA level D (one of the highest standards in aviation) simulator standard both as a quality standard and as a template for developing the simulator.

The groundbreaking HelpMeSee MSICS Simulator will provide visual and tactile realism, coupled with sophisticated courseware, enabling trainees to practice the MSICS procedure under every pre-existing and nearly every complication scenario.

HelpMeSees’s use of such high-fidelity simulation is based on commercial pilot training, where high-fidelity simulation has been proven to produce outstanding safety and performance outcomes. HelpMeSee’s surgical simulator will replicate aviation’s enviable record of consistent safety and performance results while providing training that is quick, effective, and cost-efficient—enabling HelpMeSee to treat more people more quickly and ensuring that all surgical procedures are performed at the highest quality and at minimal cost.

The simulator, used in conjunction with sophisticated courseware software, provides an endless supply of virtual eyes and unlimited opportunities for practice without endangering patients. The simulator training will be combined with Instructor Based Training (IBT), Computer Based Training (CBT) and Simulator Based Training (SBT) instructional curriculum and learning management systems.