The ‘Opening Eyes’ program at the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2019, part of the ‘Healthy Athletes’ initiative, has provided significant support for participating athletes of determination.
Staff at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s Eye Institute served as Clinical Directors for the ‘Opening Eyes’ program. Volunteers from Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and other institutions in the UAE and surrounding region participated in the program and provided eye health screenings to more than 3000 athletes taking part in the Games. Of those, more than 800 athletes received glasses and eleven were referred for urgent treatment.
In total, the screenings detected eye issues and vision problems in over 25 percent of screened athletes.
Rasha El Rachmani, a clinical optometrist at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, who managed the eye screenings at the games, explains: “It’s been a very successful part of the wider program to ensure participating athletes benefit from comprehensive screenings. We found that around one in four athletes screened has some form of vision problem and we were able to recommend preventative care in most cases.”
Since the inception of the ‘Healthy Athletes’ program in 1997, almost two million health screenings have taken place in 130 countries. Over 100,000 pairs of glasses, as well as hearing aids and orthotics, have been provided as part of the Special Olympics’ mission to transform the lives of its athletes.
People of determination often have a higher incidence of eye problems, because of the challenges they face in articulating health problems, lack of access to specialist medical care, and the higher prevalence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, that can lead to vision problems as well as other complications.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi worked alongside other organizations within Mubadala’s network of healthcare providers, including Healthpoint and Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, in supporting the ‘Healthy Athletes’ program.
