The History of Cybersight

For nearly 20 years, Cybersight has helped our expert volunteers teach and support eye care teams around the world. By using the latest advancements in internet and mobile technologies, we’re able to offer online learning and virtual consultations to doctors globally, enabling us to help eliminate avoidable blindness even in areas we cannot reach.

To celebrate its history, we’ve put together some of its highlights from over the years below.

Take a Trip Back Through History...

2003

Cybersight was launched back in 2003 (the same year Apple launched iTunes!) to utilise the internet to connect our expert volunteers with medical professionals and patients all over the world.

2005

In 2005, we expanded the Cybersight offering by creating our first e-learning programme. This allowed medical professionals around the world to access free learning resources and gain new skills wherever they were based.

2007

In March 2007, we hit a milestone of conducting our 3000th online consultation. The request came from Dr. Beata Kaczmarek, who worked at the Krakow District Eye Hospital in Poland. At the time, Dr Kaczmarek was one of 541 partners worldwide who had taken advantage of our online consultation services.

2010

In 2010, Cybersight received the President’s Award for Health Delivery, Quality and Transformation from the American Telemedicine Association. This was a testament to the cutting-edge technology and high-quality service that we offered on the platform.

2014

In 2014, we replaced our original e-consultation system with a new, modern platform.

In the same year, we also started increasing the number of regional mentors on Cybersight, including the addition of its first South African mentor, allowing medical professionals to seek advice from expert volunteers more local to them.

2016

In 2016, we live-streamed our first broadcast from the Flying Eye Hospital to medical professionals around the world.

2018

In 2018, we integrated artificial intelligence technology into Cybersight. This is used to analyse images of the back of the eye taken with any standard camera or smartphone.

This technology helps eye health professionals detect and diagnose sight-threatening eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, as well as quickly request a second opinion from our network of medical experts.

2019

In 2019 alone, we trained 7,600 eye health professionals in 183 countries with Cybersight live teaching events, and facilitated more than 1,800 patient consultations.

2020

In 2020, as much of the world ramped up its isolation efforts - the number of registered Cybersight users hit a new high of 20,000. Webinars drew audiences of more than 1,350 people across 104 countries, helping eye care professionals stay virtually connected and continue learning when training was unable to take place in person.

2021 - 22

Users of Cybersight have continued to grow with the number over 61,000 across 208 countries and territories. There were 68,000 enrolments to courses offered on the platform, and 4 million video views across it’s extensive library.

The Future of Cybersight

The future is bright for Cybersight and the millions of people in urgent need of eye care it benefits. But we can only provide this pioneering eye health service with your support.

Your donation today could help:

Develop a touch-sensitive virtual reality tool so students can practice cataract surgery on what feels like actual human tissue
Deliver AI-assisted screening for quick and accurate diagnosis of key eye conditions, preventing people from needlessly going blind
Provide digital training hubs so new eye care professionals can operate safely before treating patients

Help support eye care professionals all over the world

Donate today