Two distinguished ophthalmologists have received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award, presented November 11 at the Academy’s 2007 Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans.
Alessandro Pezzola, MD, and Paul G. Steinkuller, MD, were recognized for their participation in charitable activities, indigent care, community service and other humanitarian activities in providing services to the poor and needy populations around the world.
“Dr. Pezzolla and Dr. Steinkuller have made tremendous contributions that have bettered the health of people who did not have access to quality eye care,” said C.P. Wilkinson, MD, president of the Academy. “We are proud to honor them for their dedication, leadership, and commitment to providing services to the poor and needy populations around the world.”
Building for a Cause
Since 1987, Dr. Pezzola has been volunteering his services to organize, raise funds, and build several rural hospitals dedicated to eye surgery for disadvantaged, indigent people living in developing countries.
Dr. Pezzola sacrificed his career, his private clinical practice, his income and his health for his humanitarian service. He has helped the poorest people of the world restore vision through examinations, therapy, and thousands of surgical procedures. Dr Pezzola has been involved in projects in a number of countries, including Zaire, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana. He is currently working on a project in Indonesia and Mali.
Dr. Pezzola is one of the founding members of Una Sola Vita Foundation, a non-profit association in Italy. The foundation’s primary goal is to provide health care assistance to developing countries without any political, social, or religious prejudice by implementing medical-health programs, building new hospitals, creating medical-surgical prevention programs and training medical and paramedic personnel.
In Zaire, Dr. Pezzola was instrumental in starting an ophthalmic day surgery unit in the villages of Kamituga, Walungu, and Kiwu. This was a particularly difficult mission with rain and floods isolating the team; despite these challenges, over 2,000 patients were treated, 100 of them surgically.
Dr. Pezzola’s mission in Ghana began with the creation of an eye unit and surgical center inside the Comboni clinic. He later was involved with starting the eye surgery clinic at the St. Patrick’s hospital in Maase and most recently he began setting up an ambulatory-based ophthalmic surgical unit in the poorest area of Lombok, Indonesia. Blindness prevention for the poor will be the main goal at this clinic. So far, 1,900 patients have been examined and 200 patients have been operated on. Dr. Pezzola continues to divide his time between his practice in Italy and his missions in developing countries. “
African Mission
Almost half of the over twenty-five years that Dr. Steinkuller has practiced in the field of pediatric ophthalmology were spent caring for the underserved and underprivileged in Africa.
From 1981 to 1983, Dr. Steinkuller worked for a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project, the “Kenya Rural Blindness Prevention Project,” which was part of a population-based ocular disease survey of 12,000 people. His work on this project included examining inhabitants of rural villages in geographically distinct regions. This sampling study was, and still is, the largest study of its kind ever done in sub-Saharan Africa.
From 1985 to1987, Dr. Steinkuller worked on another USAID project, the “Malawi Childhood Blindness and Mortality Prevention Project”. During this time, Malawi children were found to be at the high risk for vitamin A deficiency, with secondary blindness and death. Dr. Steinkuller worked with the local Ministry of Health and village authorities who were in charge of vitamin A distribution, diet, and farming.
From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Steinkuller worked for Christian Blind Mission (CBM), an international Christian medical organization. CBM’s primary purpose is to improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest persons with disabilities and those at risk of disability. CBM has been involved in more than a thousand supported projects in 113 developing countries.
In the villages of Madagascar, Dr. Steinkuller focused on reducing the extent of cataract blindness. He trained general physicians to do medical ophthalmology, IOL procedures and glaucoma surgery. At the time, there were only twelve ophthalmologists for seventeen million people. Dr. Steinkuller trained Malagasy physicians, as well ophthalmologists, three of whom are now teaching in that country. His efforts will soon have doubled the number of ophthalmologists in Madagascar. Most importantly, his training program has provided people in remote rural areas access to high quality eye care. In 2004, Dr. Steinkuller received the Chevalier Award from the government of Madagascar for his excellence in training ophthalmology.
Living in Africa entailed risks. Dr. Steinkuller suffered from malaria several times, and during his stay Madagascar erupted in violent unrest lasting six months. Upon his return from Africa, Dr. Steinkuller re-joined the faculty at the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology, training residents and fellows in pediatric ophthalmology. He has been recognized by the Department four times, receiving the Best Teacher Award in 1991, 1996, 1998, and 2007.
About the American Academy of Ophthalmology
AAO is the world’s largest association of eye physicians and surgeons – Eye M.D.s – with more than 27,000 members worldwide. Eye health care is provided by the three “O’s” – opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who can treat it all: eye diseases and injuries, and perform eye surgery. To find an Eye M.D. in your area, visit the Academy’s Web site at aao.