There are 39 million people in the world who are blind. Eighty percent of them are living in low-income countries such as Kenya, and the absolute majority do not need to be blind. They are blind from diseases that are either completely curable or preventable.
在這個世界上,有三千九百萬人 是盲人。 其中有 80% 的人, 生活在低收入國家,比如肯亞, 其中的絕大多數 本不該失明。 他們是因為疾病而成為的盲人 而且那些疾病是可以被預防或治癒的。
Knowing this, with my young family, we moved to Kenya. We secured equipment, funds, vehicles, we trained a team, we set up a hundred clinics throughout the Great Rift Valley to try and understand a single question: why are people going blind, and what can we do?
知道了這些,我和我的家人 搬到了肯亞。 我們找來了設備、 資金、載具、也訓練了一個團隊, 我們一共建立了 100 多個診所, 分佈在整個東非大裂谷。 我們嘗試去理解一個問題: 爲什麽人們會變成盲人, 以及我們能夠做些什麽?
The challenges were great. When we got to where we were going, we set up our high-tech equipment. Power was rarely available. We'd have to run our equipment from petrol power generators. And then something occurred to me: There has to be an easier way, because it's the patients who are the most in need of access to eye care who are the least likely to get it.
這是一個巨大的挑戰。 當我們到達了目的地, 我們搭建了高科技設備。 但是幾乎沒有電力。 我們只能用 柴油發電機來提供電力。 然後我想到了一些事情: 應該會有更加簡單的方法, 因為這裡最需要 眼科治療的病人 看起來是最沒有條件接受治療的人。
More people in Kenya, and in sub-Saharan Africa, have access to a mobile phone than they do clean running water. So we said, could we harness the power of mobile technology to deliver eye care in a new way? And so we developed Peek, a smartphone [system] that enables community healthcare workers and empowers them to deliver eye care everywhere. We set about replacing traditional hospital equipment, which is bulky, expensive and fragile, with smartphone apps and hardware that make it possible to test anyone in any language and of any age. Here we have a demonstration of a three-month-old having their vision accurately tested using an app and an eye tracker.
越來越多生活在肯亞 以及撒哈拉以南非洲的人, 擁有手機 還比擁有清潔水源容易。 所以我們想,是否能夠 利用行動科技 提供新的方法進行眼部治療? 所以我們開發了 Peek, 它是一種智慧型手機系統, 能讓社區醫療工作者 在任何地方提供眼部醫療服務。 我們打算替換掉占地方 昂貴且脆弱的傳統醫療設備。 有了智慧型手機軟體以及硬體, 就可以為說任何語言、 任何年齡的任何人檢查。 這裡有一段示範影片, 展示如何使用軟體以及眼部追蹤器 替三個月大的孩子準確測量視力。
We've got many trials going on in the community and in schools, and through the lessons that we've learned in the field, we've realized it's extremely important to share the data in non-medical jargon so that people understand what we're examining and what that means to them. So here, for example, we use our sight sim application, once your vision has been measured, to show carers and teachers what the visual world is like for that person, so they can empathize with them and help them.
我們正在社區以及學校裡 進行多項的測試。 從之前的經驗 我們了解到極端重要的是, 把資料轉換成非醫學術語, 好讓大家能夠理解 我們在做的檢驗及對他們的意義。 舉例來說, 我們運用了視覺模擬軟體。 一旦一個人的視覺被檢測出來, 就可以讓照顧者還有老師們 知道這個人眼中的世界是怎麼樣的, 讓他們能夠以同理心來幫助這些人。
Once we've discovered somebody has low vision, the next big challenge is to work out why, and to be able to do that, we need to have access to the inside of the eye. Traditionally, this requires expensive equipment to examine an area called the retina. The retina is the single part of the eye that has huge amounts of information about the body and its health. We've developed 3D-printed, low-cost hardware that comes in at less than five dollars to produce, which can then be clipped onto a smartphone and makes it possible to get views of the back of the eye of a very high quality. And the beauty is, anybody can do it. In our trials on over two and half thousand people, the smartphone with the add-on clip is comparable to a camera that is hugely more expensive and hugely more difficult to transport.
一旦我們發現某個人視力很差, 下一個大挑戰就是找出原因。 要做到這點 我們要能夠進到眼睛裡。 傳統上,我們需要昂貴的儀器來檢測 一塊叫做視網膜的區域。 視網膜是一塊蘊含了龐大訊息的區域。 這些訊息和身體還有健康息息相關。 我們研發了 3D 列印出的 低花費的硬體, 製造成本只要不到五美元。 這個裝置可以安裝到智慧型手機上, 在手機上就可以看到眼睛後面的狀況, 並且成像效果很好。 美妙之處在於每個人都可以使用它。 在我們超過兩千五百人的測試當中, 安裝了這個裝置的智能手機 可以媲美 貴上許多 且難以搬運的攝影機。
When we first moved to Kenya, we went with 150,000 dollars of equipment, a team of 15 people, and that was what was needed to deliver health care. Now, all that's needed is a single person on a bike with a smartphone. And it costs just 500 dollars. The issue of power supply is overcome by harnessing the power of solar. Our healthcare workers travel with a solar-powered rucksack which keeps the phone charged and backed up. Now we go to the patient rather than waiting for the patient never to come. We go to them in their homes and we give them the most comprehensive, high-tech, accurate examination, which can be delivered by anyone with minimal training. We can link global experts with people in the most rural, difficult-to-reach places that are beyond the end of the road, effectively putting those experts in their homes, allowing us to make diagnoses and make plans for treatment.
當我們抵達肯亞的時候, 我們身上有價值 10 萬美元的儀器 以及一支 15 人的團隊。 我們要提供醫療服務 就是需要這麼多資源。 現在只需要 一隻智慧型手機 和一輛腳踏車就足夠了。 只花費 500 美元。 電力供應的問題 已經用連接太陽能解決了。 我們的醫療人員 背著太陽能背包 為智能手機充電及提供備用電源。 現在,我們主動去找病人, 而不是坐等永遠 不會出現的病人來找我們。 我們到他們的家裡, 提供他們最全面、 高科技、準確的檢查。 任何人受過簡單的訓練都可以做到 我們能夠讓全世界的專家 跟位於窮鄉僻壤、 難以抵達地區的人們搭上線, 有效率地把這些專家送到他們家中。 讓我們進行診斷 以及治療計劃。
Project managers, hospital directors, are able to search on our interface by any parameter they may be interested in. Here in Nakuru, where I've been living, we can search for people by whatever condition. Here are people who are blind from a curable condition cataract. Each red pin depicts somebody who is blind from a disease that is curable and treatable, and they're locatable. We can use bulk text messaging services to explain that we're coming to arrange a treatment.
專案經理、醫院管理人員 可以根據他們感興趣的部分, 在我們的介面上搜尋。 在納庫魯(Nakuru) 這個我們現在住的地方, 我們可以根據任何的健康狀況搜尋病人, 這些病人, 是可以被治癒的白內障患者。 每一個紅色大頭針, 代表一個能夠被治療的盲人, 而我們知道他們的所在地。 我們可以使用大量簡訊服務 來說明我們將會前去提供治療。
What's more, we've learned that this is something that we haven't built just for the community but with the community. Those blue pins that drop represent elders, or local leaders, that are connected to those people who can ensure that we can find them and arrange treatment.
更甚者,我們了解到 這不只是我們替社區建立的, 而是和社區合作而建立的。 藍色大頭針代表 長者或是地區領袖。 我們和這些人有聯繫, 來確保我們能找到病人 並提供治療。
So for patients like Mama Wangari, who have been blind for over 10 years and never seen her grandchildren, for less than 40 dollars, we can restore her eyesight. This is something that has to happen. It's only in statistics that people go blind by the millions. The reality is everyone goes blind on their own. But now, they might just be a text message away from help.
像是 Mama Wangari , 這樣看不見超過十年 且從未見過她孫兒女的盲人, 只要不到 40 美元, 我們就能重建她的視力。 這樣的事情是必須要實現的。 數百萬人可能眼盲 只是統計數字。 實際上每個盲人都在單打獨鬥。 但現在,他們離幫助 只有一封簡訊的距離。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
And now because live demos are always a bad idea, we're going to try a live demo.
現場示範從來都不是個好主意, 所以我們要來做現場示範。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So here we have the Peek Vision app. Okay, and what we're looking at here, this is Sam's optic nerve, which is a direct extension of her brain, so I'm actually looking at her brain as we look there. We can see all parts of the retina. It makes it possible to pick up diseases of the eye and of the body that would not be possible without access to the eye, and that clip-on device can be manufactured for just a few dollars, and people can be cured of blindness, and I think it says a lot about us as a human race if we've developed cures and we don't deliver them. But now we can.
這就是 Peek Vision 應用程式。 好,看這裡, 這是 Sam 的視神經, 它從她的大腦直接延伸出來。 我是實際上正看到她的大腦內部。 我們可以看到她整個視網膜, 這樣一來就可以找出 眼睛以及身體的疾病。 看不到眼睛內部的話是做不到的。 這個活動裝置只需要數美元 就可以製造出來, 也使患者免於失明。 這對人類來說意義重大, 不能光是研究出治療方法 卻無法實際提供給患者, 但現在我們可以做到。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)