Heidelberg and Orbis Expand Global Partnership to Advance Eye Care Education and Clinical Research
Heidelberg Engineering and Orbis International announced an expansion of their collaboration to strengthen access to eye care education and advance clinical research. The announcement was made on board the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital during its latest program in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Flying Eye Hospital—recognized as the world’s only fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board an aircraft—served as the backdrop for a recorded discussion between Kfir Azoulay, Managing Director of Heidelberg Engineering, and Hunter Cherwek, MD, Vice President of Clinical Services and Technologies at Orbis International.
In their conversation, the two leaders underscored the shared mission of both organizations to strengthen eye health services in underserved communities and equip professionals with the tools and knowledge to prevent avoidable blindness. Topics included:
The impact of Cybersight, Orbis’s free telemedicine and e-learning platform, which provides tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide with high-quality training and support—made possible in part by Heidelberg Engineering’s backing
The growing role of artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and remote diagnostics in expanding access to quality care in resource-limited settings
The recent Rwandan training program, where local teams gained hands-on experience aboard the aircraft and at partner hospitals, combined with innovative virtual learning
The persistent challenges eye care professionals face in underserved regions and the importance of cross-sector collaboration to overcome barriers to treatment
A highlight of the announcement was the launch of a new clinical project in Lusaka, Zambia, where Heidelberg Engineering will deploy its advanced Anterion imaging platform. The system will be used for patient preoperative imaging and to generate data critical for integrating optical biometry into routine cataract surgery protocols—a major step forward in improving surgical outcomes.
This new phase of collaboration builds on achievements from 2024, when Heidelberg Engineering:
Sponsored four high-impact Cybersight webinars—attended over 2,000 times by practitioners in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, and Ukraine
Supported Orbis-led research into retinoblastoma
Looking ahead, Heidelberg Engineering said it will continue to fund Cybersight training in 2025, including four new live webinars. The next session, “Enhancing Cataract Surgery Outcomes with Surgical Technologies & Techniques,” will take place on October 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM UTC. Sign up here.