Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Eye Center has a successful international outreach program called WakeECHO Global Ophthalmology. WakeECHO was born out of a multi-year collaboration with ECHO Foundation, an expert on and stakeholder in global ophthalmology in Honduras. WakeECHO has a greater than 25 year history of leading eye surgery brigades, and a successful track record of analyzing and overcoming barriers to providing quality surgical and clinical eye care that exist in the developing world. 

Wake Forest School of Medicine International Ophthalmology / WakeECHO

Learn more about the program from the leadership team and several graduates of the program. 

Mission Statement

  • To serve the underserved in the developing world by providing medical and surgical ophthalmology care
  • To inspire and facilitate our fellow and future US ophthalmologists to do the same
  • To build lasting friendships and professional partnerships with local eye care providers where we work
  • To facilitate mutual education in order to elevate level of care
  • To promote sustainable growth in order to elevate scope of care 

We enjoy mobilizing volunteers to augment the work of local ophthalmologists, facilitating skills transfer and didactic training opportunities, and seeding sustainable growth of surgical and clinical eye care. We are proud to be inspiring the next generation of ophthalmologists to lend their time and talents to patients in the developing world. Our ophthalmology residency and subspecialty fellowship training programs include time for senior residents and fellows to participate in a weeklong surgery brigade to Honduras. To date, WakeECHO has accomplished 10 surgery brigades to Honduras, introducing 17 trainees to the experience of serving in the developing world. These trainees report a high level of satisfaction with the experience and all surveyed say they plan to continue this type of volunteer service (or already have). 

 

Mission Statement

  • To serve the underserved in the developing world by providing medical and surgical ophthalmology care
  • To inspire and facilitate our fellow and future US ophthalmologists to do the same
  • To build lasting friendships and professional partnerships with local eye care providers where we work
  • To facilitate mutual education in order to elevate level of care
  • To promote sustainable growth in order to elevate scope of care 
We enjoy mobilizing volunteers to augment the work of local ophthalmologists, facilitating skills transfer and didactic training opportunities, and seeding sustainable growth of surgical and clinical eye care. Inspiring the next generation of ophthalmologists to lend their time and talents to patients in the developing world. Our ophthalmology residency and subspecialty fellowship training programs include time for senior residents and fellows to participate in a weeklong surgery brigade to Honduras. To date, Wake ECHO has accomplished 10 surgery brigades to Honduras, introducing 17 trainees to the experience of serving in the developing world. These trainees report a high level of satisfaction with the experience and all surveyed say they plan to continue this type of volunteer service (or already have).