Last fall, the Armenian EyeCare Project’s Country Director, Nune Yeghiazaryan, was asked to speak at the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) webinar for World Diabetes Day. Most recently, WHO highlighted the work our organization is doing in Armenia for diabetics through our cutting-edge Diabetes Program.

With an emphasis on preventative care and the utilization of state-of-the-art technology, the goal of the AECP’s Diabetes Program is to prevent blindness or loss of sight from diabetes, a disease that plagues over 250,000 residents in Armenia.

“Diabetic eye disease has always been among the targets of the Armenian EyeCare Project’s work. However, only in 2017, it became possible to have a comprehensive program for diabetic retinopathy and other diabetes-related eye diseases through the cooperation of Armenia’s Ministry of Health, the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), and our other partners,” Yeghiazaryan said. 

The World Diabetes Foundation was also proud of our Diabetes Program gaining recognition by the World Health Organization. “It’s not every day that a WDF-funded project is promoted by the World Health Organization,” WDF wrote. “We’re delighted to see the hard work of our partners, Nune Yeghiazaryan and the Armenian EyeCare Project, recognized and the learnings from this great project shared.”

After a trip to Armenia last fall, WDF’s Managing Director, Leif Fenger Jensen, was also proud to see the accomplishments of this program firsthand. “I visited the Project last autumn and I was witness to an indeed impressive project,” Jensen said. “Great to join forces with such a talented and hard-working group of people. This is a great example that we are stronger together. Keep up the good work.”

With support from our partners, the AECP has been able to screen tens of thousands of Armenians since our Diabetes Program began in 2017. Perhaps most noteworthy is that these screenings are performed using cutting-edge AI technology that’s never before been used in Armenia.

“One of the innovations that AECP used in this project, and for the first time in Armenia, are portable fundus cameras linked to the cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) grading system and archiving software system which allows collecting and storing information on diagnosis and follow-up options,” Yeghiazaryan said. “This became possible thanks to our cooperation with EyeNuk.”

Our organization is beyond grateful to be working with such great partners for our Diabetes Program and we are proud to be recognized by the World Health Organization. We hope our accomplishments in this field continue and we will be able to save the sight of many more people with diabetes in Armenia.

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