Global Impact Lab: Research Study Ideas

Listed below are research ideas available for volunteers to pursue while abroad.  We also very much welcome you to develop your own ideas that may not yet be on this list.

If you would like to pursue research or another project, please contact Tara Bryant (tbryant@uniteforsight.org) so that you can begin working to develop your ideas.  Unite For Sight will help to guide you through the development phase of your idea. Additionally, any research project requires that you have a faculty mentor at your home institution as well as Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.  Your faculty mentor will be able to assist you with the IRB approval process at your university.

Upon completion of your research, you are required to submit a copy of your report to Unite For Sight, and your research will be considered for presentation at GH/Innovate, Unite For Sight's Global Health & Innovation Conference.

Global Impact Fellow Resource

Community Eye Health Research: Journal Article Database

We have compiled this database of research articles for the field of eye health in developing countries. While this database may not be all-inclusive, it includes most all community eye health research articles published during the past 30 years. Global Impact Fellows utilize this database to develop new research study ideas and also to pursue literature reviews while developing research study designs.

Select Your Volunteer Location

Accra Region, Ghana

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health educatoin program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Clinical Research

Global Impact Fellows in the Accra & Kumasi program have an opportunity to work with Ghanaian ophthalmologist Dr. Michael Gyasi on clinical research studies at his eye clinic in Accra. Those participating on research with Dr. Gyasi need to bring a personal laptop for data collection.

Glaucoma research project with Dr. Gyasi: A comprehensive glaucoma database, covering nearly 1,000 eyes and containing more than 60 fields has been developed recently with contributions from participating Unite For Sight Global Impact Fellows. The study is currently moving into the analysis and write-up stages, and Global Impact Fellows with some experience in basic statistics (SPSS or Epi Info-free download from the CDC website) are invited to join. While a number of research questions are to be answered from this database, participants are encouraged to develop at least one research question of their own, and this would be optionally submitted for possible poster presentation at the 2011 Unite For Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference at Yale. Participants who make substantial contributions would be coauthors in at least one publication that comes out. Authorship requires contributions in the areas of literature review and manuscript write-up.

Cataract research project with Dr. Gyasi: Dr. Gyasi is currently studying the visual outcome and levels of induced corneal astigmatism as well as other parameters in small incision sutureless cataract surgeries. The primary database has been developed with contributions from participating Global Impact Fellows. The database is currently undergoing "cleaning up" by other research participants. Once this is complete, the data analysis and write-up would commence, and Global Impact Fellows are invited to join at this stage. They must have experience in SPSS or Epi Info statistical tools and should be able to work extended hours independently. A publication is expected from this project, and research assistants who contribute substantially for a minimum of two weeks would become coauthors. Authorship requires contributions in the areas of literature review and manuscript write-up. Participants are also expected to present a poster on the research at the 2011 Unite For Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference at Yale.

Barriers to Glaucoma Service Uptake: The Global Impact Fellow will employ qualitative research methodologies to explore the perceptions and beliefs of glaucoma patients presenting late to the clinic.  The Global Impact Fellow will work with Dr. Gyasi to develop a questionnaire and research methodologies.  The study is intended to improve public and patient education programs to encourage early detection and sight loss prevention.

Factors Affecting Adherence to Glaucoma Medication:  This study is prompted by a recent research study by Dr. Gyasi that nearly half of newly diagnosed glaucoma patients put on medication failed to achieve nominal IOP control.  The research method will be qualitative in-depth interviews.  Where necessary, a focus-group discussion will also be conducted with the help of local participating doctors.  This study will improve glaucoma care by tackling the specific barriers to eye drop utilization.

Brain Drain/Health Care Worker Research

Brain-drain/Labor force: Research the distribution of ophthalmic health workers across the region.  Interview key informants regarding reasons for shortage of health workers and potential solutions to this problem. Example: Basic ophthalmic assessment and care workshops for rural health workers.

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Educational Tool: Develop an educational tool. For example, write a song to educate children regarding eye diseases, use photos of diseased eyes to educate adults, or create a video documentary of a patient’s surgical experience.

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Articles: Keep a journal of your volunteer experience and publish an article on your observations of community eye health, supplemented with first-hand stories from your experience abroad.

Patient advocacy project: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Tamale, Ghana

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages

"Couching" technique research project: Many patients in Northern Ghana have undergone a "couching" cataract procedure by traditional healers, which involves sticking a needle into the eye in order to dislodge the lens, thereby alowing people who were previously blind to see light.  However, this technique is not a medical cataract surgery and often causes severe, permanent damage to the structures within the eye. Dr. Wanye at Eye Clinic of Tamale Teaching Hospital frequently examines cataract patients whose previous couching procedure has permanently damaged their eye, making them unable to have a cataract surgery that can restore their sight.  A research study would focus on a) community members' understanding of what is a cataract surgery?; b) frequency of cataract patients who have couching; c) frequency of cataract patients who had couching and now have permanent damage to the eye; and e) why some patients may not have pursued couching while other patients did.

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health education program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Brain Drain/Health Care Worker Research

Brain-drain/Labor force: Research the distribution of ophthalmic health workers across the region.  Interview key informants regarding reasons for shortage of health workers and potential solutions to this problem. Example: Basic ophthalmic assessment and care workshops for rural health workers.

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Rural Village Outreach, Ghana

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health educatoin program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Brain Drain/Health Care Worker Research

Brain-drain/Labor force: Research the distribution of ophthalmic health workers across the region.  Interview key informants regarding reasons for shortage of health workers and potential solutions to this problem. Example: Basic ophthalmic assessment and care workshops for rural health workers.

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Bihar, India

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages and Charity Clinics in City

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health education program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Diabetes and Eye Health: Research the relationship between diabetes and eye health. This could be a study that examines prevalence or assesses patient knowledge about how to manage these two conditions. Example: Prevalence and risk factors for cataracts in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Chennai, India

Survey-Based Research Designs

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health educatoin program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Clinical Research

Cataract study: Specular microscopy to study corneal endothelial cell lost, pre and post phacoemulsification cataract surgery.

Lasik study: Optical coherence tomography in pre and post Lasik patients.

Glaucoma suspects: Optical coherence tomography to assess angle in glaucoma suspects.

Glaucoma study: OCT study for optic nerve head in glaucoma patients.

Macula study: OCT study to assess macular edema in postoperative patients.

Diabetic retionpathy study: OCT to study diabetic macular edema.

Diabetes and Eye Health: What are patient perceptions about diabetes and eye health?

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

New Delhi, India

Research

Dr. Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital will work with you to develop a research project.

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Orissa, India

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health educatoin program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

Honduras

Survey-Based Research Designs in Villages

Patient barriers to care: What are the patients' perceived barriers to care when first arriving at a Unite For Sight outreach screening?  What are the patients' perceived barriers to care after being examined, diagnosed, and counseled by the local eye doctors? 

Fear of Surgery: Relatively few patients with cataracts in the Tegucigalpa region follow through with surgery even though it is provided for free and all transportation is provided by Cova. Why are patients not pursuing surgery?

Sunglasses: Patients in villages are hesitant to accept or use sunglasses. Why?

Traditional medicine: How many patients self-treat or seek treatment from traditional healers?  What type of treatments do they use?  Why are these treatments preferred over medical eye care services?

Eye Disease Prevalence (Program Start): Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where an outreach team is first beginning to work.

Eye Disease Prevalence: Survey the prevalence of eye disease in a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than one year and for a location where a Unite For Sight outreach team has been providing eye care for more than two years.

Color Blindness:  Few studies have assessed the prevalence of color blindness in the developing world.  Pilot a study to collect basic statistics about prevalence using a color blindness test.  Example: Blue-yellow colour vision in an onchocercal area of northern Nigeria.

Eye health education evaluation: Develop an eye health educatoin program that includes a pre-test and post-test.  The pre and post tests will help to determine if the eye health education program is effective.  Several different eye health education programs can be developed to identify what type of initiative is most effective in village settings.

Perceptions about medication: What do patients believe about medication?  What do they believe medication is used for?  What are misperceptions about medication?

Visual aids and medication: Does patient understanding about medication increase when using pictograms and graphics to explain medication use?  See, for example, a sample pictogram: http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20021221/pictures/p935.jpg

Perceptions about cataract: Survey approach to identify what patients believe about the cause of cataracts.  Do they believe it is curable?  If so, how?

Seasonal uptake of surgery: During what part of the year do patients prefer to have cataract surgery?  Why?

Survey of patients whose vision in both eyes is worse than 20/400: Do they have a caretaker?  Who is their caretaker?  Do they currently work?  If they do currently work, what is their occupation?  If they do not currently work, did they previously work?  If they did work previously, why are they not currently working?  What is the most major change in their life since losing sight in both eyes?

Etiology of blindness: Collect data on the etiology of blindness in the village setting for patients who seek care.

Survey patients attending village outreaches: Determine the motivation behind patients attending the eye care outreach programs in villages.  Conduct in-depth interviews.

Distance Traveled: Investigate how far patients travel to reach the outreaches.  Does this distance correlate with the severity of their ailment? What other factors affect the distance traveled?

Value of a cataract surgery: What are patient perceptions regarding the price and value of a cataract surgery before their surgery, after their surgery, and at the time when they are told the full amount of the surgery sponsored by Unite For Sight?

Burden of Disease: Research the burden (morbidity and mortality) of eye diseases using DALYS or QALYs.  See: Discrete time representation of the formula for calculating DALYs.

Quality of Life:  Research the impact of eye-disease on patients’ quality of life using a validated tool (such as the WHO QOL tool) before and after an intervention such as surgery or glasses.  Which groups report the biggest increase in QOL?  What factors correlate with the group that reports the highest QOL improvement?  Example: Visual acuity and quality of life in patients with cataract in Doumen County, China.

Gender and Community Eye Health: Investigate whether gender inequalities exist in surgical outcomes or in any other outcome variable. Poorer surgical outcomes may be attributed, for example, to failure to utilize postoperative medication. Example: Sex inequalities in cataract blindness burden and surgical services in south India. Another research study can investigate whether there are differences in help-seeking behavior and willingness to utilize health services between gender groups.

Ocular Injuries: Record patients’ history of ocular trauma and identify any correlations with occupation. Do some jobs cause a greater incidence of ocular injury? Develop education program ideas for worker safety.  Example: Eye health of industrial workers in Southeastern Nigeria.

Psychology: Conduct a psychology study to measure the effect of poor eye health/disease on self perception and stress level.  An additional project is to have patients draw self-portraits and compare these drawings with their actual picture. (Global Impact Fellow Rebecca Burger-Caplan pursued this study in Ghana, which would be an outstanding idea to pursue further and in other program sites)

Rural vs. Urban: Conduct the same study in two locations—one rural and one urban—to assess the impact that location has on a particular variable. This variable could be QOL after surgery, self perceptions, barriers to access, etc.

Social Perception of Glasses: What is the perception of eyeglasses in the region?  Are they seen as a fashion accessory and desirable? Do people try to obtain glasses when they do not need them, or are they seen as indicating an embarrassing handicap? Are there differences between different villages, or urban versus rural? Use an anthropological perspective to investigate the reasons behind these perceptions.

Source of knowledge about outreaches: How did patients learn about eye care outreach services provided by Unite For Sight?

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Projects (non-research)

Illness Narratives:  Detail the experience of illness among a small sample of individuals using ethnographic methods.  

Patient advocacy: Collect stories from patients who previously had Unite For Sight-sponsored surgery. Document their stories and the impact of their sight-restoring surgery.

Film: Create a film or documentary about your community eye care needs, about the clinic, or about a similar topic.

Other ideas: Use your creativity to develop your own project or research proposal.

 

Entrepreneurial Volunteering Training Course