The Lions Eye Institute’s clinician researchers have been helping to reduce the alarming rates of blindness in Indonesia since the 1970s. Today, more than three million people are blind in Indonesia, largely due to cataract and glaucoma.
Our relationship with Indonesia is very special and we have facilitated a large number of opportunities to share expertise and inventions. Some of the highlights include:
- A comprehensive eye care partnership strategy with Indonesia has been in place for over 20 years that includes service provision, teaching students surgery techniques and collaborating on research projects.
- An exchange program between the Lions Eye Institute, Royal Perth Hospital and Indonesian ophthalmologists continues to this day.
- 64 Indonesian trainee ophthalmologists have visited Perth to undertake an Observership program over the past decade.
- With support from the Perth Eye Foundation, in 2023 we began sending Western Australian trainees to Indonesia, which allows skills and relationships to be developed.
- The Lions Eye Institute driving the development of the Australia-Bali Memorial Eye Centre (now renamed the Bali Mandara Eye Hospital) in the wake of the Bali bombings.
- Memorandums of Understandings with three Indonesian universities to strengthen ties and foster innovation and training opportunities.
- Our clinicians and nurses volunteer at the John Fawcett Foundation to help with cataract surgeries.
- Developing low cost and easily transportable screening devices to assist with detecting glaucoma and diabetes in remote communities and islands of Indonesia.
Virna Glaucoma Drainage Device invention now extends to babies and children
The original Virna Glaucoma Drainage Device (left) and the new paediatric version (right) which is just 10mm x 17mm.
The Lions Eye Institute co-invented the Virna Glaucoma Drainage Device in collaboration with the University of Indonesia. This low cost drainage device is the only one approved by the Indonesian Ministry of Health and has made a substantial impact on the rates of blindness from glaucoma. Over 2,000 devices have been implanted.
In 2023, the Virna Glaucoma Drainage Device for children was released, which enables the treatment for glaucoma to now extend to babies or those with very small eyes in Indonesia.
The new device is a smaller version suitable for babies and children suffering from this condition. Intraocular pressure can be measured and assessed over time and as the child grows, the device can be replaced by the adult version of the drainage device if needed.
The new paediatric version will help patients with congenital glaucoma and provide greater flexibility and choice to Indonesian surgeons. The new version has been in development for around two years and has already been used on 20 babies and children.
