IntuVision Labs Pvt Ltd.,

Magnitude of Blindness:
Healthcare is one of the most serious problems of emerging countries. One other factor is the very low doctor to patient ratio. In India there is only one doctor for every 1720 people. In some of the African countries it can be as low as 1:50000. The low doctor to patient ratio coupled with illiteracy, lack of rural reach and scalability can make this problem much more complex. Technology can be one of the solutions to this complex and severe problem.
There are an estimated 45 million classified blind people in the world and India alone has got 14 million. Just over 14000 ophthalmologists practice in India today and a meager 800 ophthalmologists graduate every year, drastically lower than essential. Only 7% of people in various stages of blindness are screened and treated today. The biggest factor is the acute shortage of ophthalmologists at locations of need – rural areas. Other factors are lack of awareness (“I thought going blind with age was natural”). Blind people in India (and other developing countries for that matter) get very limited social support and this significantly lowers the quality of life leading to premature deaths.