Twinning and Training: Scalable Solutions for Global Eye Cancer Equity

Grounded in concrete achievements across Ghana, Rwanda, and beyond, this integrated approach that SGO, founded and directed by Prof. Ido Didi Fabian, delivers measurable progress through four interconnected pillars: patient care & outreach, education & training, global advocacy & networking, and research & innovation. By creating sustainable systems in LMICs, SGO helps ensure that high-quality eye cancer care becomes available worldwide, no matter one’s financial situation.

Pillars of Sustainable Capacity Building in Ocular Care

Sheba Global Ophthalmology (SGO)’s framework aligns clinical excellence with long-term capacity-building, where patient outreach reinforces training pipelines, advocacy amplifies research outputs, and innovation strengthens every partnership. This holistic model replaces episodic aid with institutional twinning that transfers operational control to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) teams, enabling them to manage complex ophthalmic cases. 

As SGO’s milestones over the years illustrate, these pillars create a virtuous cycle: trained specialists generate local evidence, which attracts further collaboration, accelerating equity in ocular oncology across regions.

Humanitarian Outreach in Africa

In 2025, SGO conducted two impactful journeys to Accra, culminating in a landmark MOU with Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Local leaders like Dr. Vera Essuman worked with SGO to co-design sustainable systems that support long-term improvements in diagnosis, treatment, and medical education. This helps ensure continuity long after Sheba teams depart. 

This partnership helped train local ophthalmologists to deliver systemic therapies independently, such as diagnosing and executing complex surgeries, which provides a practical blueprint that other African or other LMICs centers can adopt.

In addition, SGO, in partnership with the Heron Foundation, conducted joint outreach work in Kibungo, Rwanda, combining school-based screening with a multidisciplinary oculoplastics team led by Prof. Guy Ben-Simon and Prof. Dafna Prat Landau. The effort trained local optometrists and ophthalmologists in portable diagnostic methods and reconstructive techniques, enabling teams to deliver sustainable eye care and manage orbital tumors more effectively in rural settings. 

This collaboration exemplifies SGO’s commitment to scalable, capacity-building partnerships that extend beyond single visits while elevating regional expertise through shared training modules.

Mentorship Pipelines and Research Fueling Scale

Vision impairment and blindness burden hundreds of millions worldwide, with 90% in LMICs that contribute little to global ophthalmology research—perpetuating inequities and stalling local solutions. ResearchLink by SGO bridges this by linking early-career researchers from low-resource areas with worldwide mentors, guiding them from proposals to published, locally relevant studies. 

Through mentorship pipelines and the ResearchLink platform, together they build scalable eye-care capacity by integrating training, data infrastructure, and twinning curricula into a unified ecosystem that accelerates evidence-based practice. Most powerfully, inclusive research networks connect medical centers globally with shared protocols, transparent data collaboration, and uniform outcomes—enabling answers to big questions while translating findings into equitable patient care improvements.

Global Collaboration Invites Broader Participation

Founded and directed by Prof. Ido Didi Fabian, SGO is a beacon of hope for accredited LMIC centers worldwide. Through ocular oncology collaborations, partners can leverage these proven models, igniting a vibrant global network that bridges critical gaps in eye cancer care and elevates LMICs as anchors of equity, innovation, and restored sight for all in need. 

To continue this momentum, SGO extends a heartfelt invitation to academic centers, foundations, industry pioneers, and governments to join in co-creating bidirectional pathways of discovery that weave the four-pillar model—patient care, training, advocacy, and research—into partner sites, unlocking true self-reliance and shared triumphs.​

Because leadership in ocular oncology is about elevating others through dedicated service—creating platforms for collaboration, mentoring the next generation, strengthening professional societies, and building trust through shared standards, education, and open exchange. This approach empowers teams to thrive and ensures the field advances equitably for patients today and for future generations to come.