Dr. Frimpong’s relationship with Orbis goes back to 2017 when long-time Volunteer Faculty pediatric glaucoma specialist, Dr. Jamie Brandt and Orbis, facilitated a fellowship opportunity in the United States for her and her colleague, Dr. Angelina Ampong.
This remarkable opportunity, with help from Orbis supporters, involved spending two weeks in a wet lab practicing surgical skills with pediatric glaucoma “guru”, Dr. Alana Grajewski at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Florida. The pair then attended the 2017 AAO conference in Chicago, followed by a stop in Sacramento, California to spend 10 days with Dr. Brandt at UC Davis.
In 2019, Dr. Frimpong, Dr. Ampong and Dr. Brandt reunited for hospital training. This time in Kumasi, Ghana, to - in Dr. Brandt’s words - “bring both of these eye doctors into the fold along with other leading sub-specialists in pediatric ophthalmology.”
Reflecting on her partnership with Orbis Dr. Frimpong said: “So the uniqueness is the Orbis commitment — you can see the love and the commitment that volunteers and staff have for the job in terms of training people to be like them so that we can deliver and help others.”
Her first Orbis mentor, Dr. Brandt, from UC Davis, told us about the importance of training our partners. He added: “For me, as a diehard academic who wouldn’t be in medicine if not for the teaching part, Orbis provides the ability to create new colleagues and support them through their practice.
“Dr. Frimpong and Dr. Ampong are fine examples whom I’ve helped bring on board into the larger community of pediatric glaucoma specialists. It’s an incredibly rewarding feeling to know that I’ve trained people to do pediatric glaucoma on multiple continents.”