Evan Wilson Reflection – Belize cataract research & educational project

Evan Wilson, a College of Medicine student, was awarded a Center for Global Health Student & Trainee Travel Grant in late 2024 to pursue a project in Belize City, Belize, with other representatives of the MUSC Storm Eye Institute. View more photos of his time in country in this Flickr photo gallery.

I landed in Belize City ready to experience the unknown and absorb as much information as possible from the Storm Eye residents and faculty, Belize Council for the Visually Impaired (BCVI) health professionals, and Belizean patients.

Astonishingly, my first taxi ride in country to get groceries from a local supermarket held the first surprise of my trip: my driver was a previous patient of BCVI! He told me how his vision has improved drastically since having cataract surgery done at BCVI the prior year and how happy he was that he was able to have the procedure done with the talented professionals at the clinic. This encounter set the tone for what would be an unforgettable trip for me.

Day one in the clinic speaking with and evaluating patients alongside attending physician Dr. Eliza Barnwell, as well as resident physicians Dr. Sarah DeVaro and Dr. Bryce Robbins, brought even more insight, challenges and opportunities. Whilst Storm Eye members evaluated patient’s visual acuity and performed slit lamp exams on patients crammed into the clinic, I issued a questionnaire to each patient aiming to learn more about their individual stories.

I loved getting to know each patient a little better and learning about the sacrifices they made to get to this point in their eye care journey. What I gleaned is that patients legitimately came from all over the country to be seen at the clinic and that many had little-to-no comprehensive eye work-up prior to BCVI. It was through these individual snapshots into the lives of the patients coming to be seen at the clinic that I was grounded prior to start of the days in the operating room.

The next three days were a whirlwind of data collection, as well as learning about and witnessing both manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) and traditional phacoemulsification-guided cataract removal. The intimate operating room was ground zero for collaborative surgical decision-making at the direction of the Storm Eye Institute members and with the coordination and support of BCVI operating room staff. I watched as everyone pitched in to make sure each patient had the best outcome and was as comfortable as possible during the surgery. The density of the cataracts encountered during those three days created obstacles that I feel privileged to have watched the surgeons navigate around with skill and dedication.

In between operations, I used both the in-house surgical outcome database as well as the Belize Ministry of Health records website to match prior patient data with post-operative refractive outcomes associated with Storm Eye faculty and resident surgical visits. Motivated front-office staff showed me the tips and tricks associated with the database and talked me through how post-operative refractive data is gathered both at the Belize City clinic as well as at other locations of theirs scattered across the country.

The data came alive for me as I watched patients stream in on Friday, the post-op day, with brand new implanted lenses and a chance at improved vision. Each data point represented a very real mother, daughter, uncle or grandparent who would be able to continue pursuing what they enjoy most in life just like my enthusiastic taxi driver/tour operator who I encountered on my first day in Belize.

During this final day in clinic, I got to see first-hand through the slit lamp how the surgical ports were healing up and how much edema was present. The opportunity to work with the talented professionals on the ground at BCVI working tirelessly to provide eye care to the people of Belize left me with both a sense of wonder and an appreciation for the tireless spirit of global health workers worldwide. I will not soon forget my time at the clinic in Belize City and am excited to showcase the hard work of BCVI staff as well as Storm Eye Institute faculty and residents in recent years through my research leveraging the cataract surgery data.