Executive Director
Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology
Kathmandu Nepal
Dr. Sanduk Ruit was born in the far eastern part of Nepal near Mount Kanchenjunga. After receiving his primary education in Nepal and India, he was selected to study medicine under a scholarship in India. He completed his residency in ophthalmology from the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1984.
Over the last 25 years, Dr. Ruit and his team have continuously struggled to fight against the barriers of modern cataract surgery to the community, particularly the marginalized. The aim is to ultimately increase the large target group to come under the bracket of modern cataract surgery.
In the late 80s, Dr. Ruit and his team first simplified the conventional extra capsular cataract extraction with lens implantation and made it appropriate for local conditions. There were four areas of priority (a) simplifying the surgical technique, delivery system and team building (b) finding very effective system for training (c) working on affordable medical consumables e.g. high quality, low cost intraocular lenses and (d) trying to solve the complexity of financial issues.
Dr. Ruit and his colleagues have been spreading this technology to many parts of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. This system has been received extremely well by hundreds of thousands of patients, eye doctors, health personnel and politicians in many parts of Asia. Through this mechanism, tremendous international goodwill and peace has been fostered and spread, even in the most difficult parts of the world. Several centers have been opened in Nepal and outside Nepal, carrying on this goodwill and providing training to doctors and other eye health personnel from all over the world.
Over time, this technique and system have evolved together with the evolution of technology in the western world. The most important fact is that his group has always attempted to provide the best outcome of surgery even to the most under privileged and into the most remote areas of the world, and, to be made affordable to people living in these areas. Also, this technique of modern cataract surgery and philosophy has been passed onto more than seven hundred eye surgeons from around the world and they are now applying it for the benefit of patients in their own areas.
Dr. Ruit and his team modified and simplified the use of high-quality small incision cataract (SICS) surgery in the community when the surgery was not accepted well. SICS training slowly became a global reality in places where cataract backlog was very high.
Corneal transplantation in Nepal was limited prior to 1994 due to the lack of readily available corneal tissue. The establishment of the Nepal Eye Bank at Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology revolutionized the concept of eye donation in Nepal and now the country is self-sufficient in corneal tissue that is used during transplantation.
Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO) acts as a model for instituting the concept of high quality eye care for the community and for developing an effective cost recovery scheme. This efficient model of eye care has been quoted by many and is now practiced in many parts of the world. Dr. Ruit was one of the Founders of Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which opened in 1994.
Dr. Ruit is co-founder and director of the Himalayan Cataract Project. He works very closely with his partner and co-director, Dr. Geoff Tabin. With the Fred Hollows Foundation, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology is working very closely in developing different systems and surgical techniques. TIO, in close conjunction with its partners, is spreading this very effective and proudly Nepalese system, in many parts of Africa, South America, Thailand, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Pacific Islands, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Indonesia etc.
In appreciation of his work, he has been awarded with The Ramon Magasaysay Award 2006 for Peace and International Understanding, Prince Mahidol Award 2007 for achievements in Public Health, Order of Australia (OA) 2007, Reader's Digest Asian of the Year 2007, Ujjwal Kirtimaya Rashtra Deep from the President of Nepal 2010 and Honor of addressing at the National Press Club of Australia 1995. He has recently been honored as the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2014.