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Making Sight Affordable (Part I)

Aurolab Pioneers Production of Low-Cost Technology for Cataract Surgery

Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, Summer 2006

Mahad Ibrahim, Aman Bhandari, Jaspal S. Sandhu, and P. Balakrishnan

Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization

Blindness from causes treatable by modern medicine afflicts millions of people every year. Cataracts, the single largest cause of preventable blindness, can be treated by a simple and quick surgical procedure that restores sight; sadly, extreme poverty and its consequences limit access to the medical technologies and infrastructure needed for the surgery. As a result, the crush of blindness continues unabated worldwide.

Ibrahim et al. talk about Aurolab, a non-profit Indian medical device organization in 1992 with the mission to manufacture intraocular lenses at an affordable cost for the Indian market. Aurolab has managed to be the first organization to provide a solution to producing critical eye care technologies that allows the restoration of sight among the many for whom the required surgery was previously unaffordable.

Download: Making Sight Affordable (Part I) (PDF, 360.91 K)

Read More: Aid, Development, Health, Technology, India, Asia