The Government of Nepal has announced that senior ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit honored with Suprasiddha Prabal Janasewa Shree (First Class).
President Bidya Bhandari will confer the title on Ruit amidst a program organized on the occasion of 5th Constitution Day.
Bhandari will confer medals, awards, decoration and honors on as many as 594 personalities, living or dead, from different walks of life in recognition of their valuable contribution to the country.
Working in Australia in 1986, Ruit and Fred Hollows developed a strategy for using inexpensive intraocular lenses to bring small-incision cataract surgery to the developing world. However, the lenses remained too expensive for many cataract patients.
In 1995 Ruit developed a new intraocular lens that could be produced far more cheaply and which, as of 2010, is used in over 60 countries. Ruit’s method is now taught in U.S. medical schools. Despite being far cheaper, Ruit’s method has the same success rate as western techniques: 98% at six months.
In 1994 Ruit and The Fred Hollows Foundation founded the Tilganga Eye Center, now called the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, in Kathmandu.
