Dr. Annette Giangiacomo, a Green Bay glaucoma specialist, spent a week in Ulaanbaatar training local ophthalmologists through Orbis International, part of a decade-long commitment to expanding sight-saving care in Mongolia and beyond.
More than a billion people worldwide live with vision loss, and by Orbis International‘s estimate, 90 percent of those cases could be prevented or treated — if care were available. Glaucoma, however, remains the leading cause of blindness that can’t be reversed once it occurs, which is why training local providers to catch and treat it early matters so much.
That’s the work Dr. Annette Giangiacomo, a glaucoma specialist at Tower Clock Eye Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, traveled to Mongolia to do in June. A volunteer with Orbis since 2016, she has previously worked in Ghana, Cameroon, and Jamaica; this trip marked her first time in the country, reached after a 15-hour flight to Seoul followed by a 3.5-hour connection to Ulaanbaatar.
Working out of Third Central Hospital alongside Orbis Mongolia lead Dr. Ijil, volunteer scrub nurse Irma from the UK, and local ophthalmologists Drs. Zaya, Sarah, and Tumen, Giangiacomo’s team reviewed nearly 40 surgical candidates in the first two days, using patient files she’d studied in advance on Orbis’s Cybersight platform. Over the following days the team completed 11 glaucoma surgeries, including Ahmed valve implants and trabeculectomies, alongside laser treatments and postoperative rounds with residents.
For Giangiacomo, the point of the trip was never simply to perform surgeries herself. “Their goal is to teach,” she said of Orbis’s mission. “So our goal is to leave behind better care for the individuals that live in the countries that we serve.” She compared the approach to teaching someone to fish rather than handing them a meal: training physicians who can then pass that knowledge on to the next generation of doctors in their own communities.
In a 2022 interview with Health Digest, Giangiacomo explained her draw to ophthalmology as a medical student, noting that the eyes can reveal a great deal about a patient’s overall health, from diabetes to neurological conditions like stroke. She described glaucoma as a disease that often causes no pain or noticeable symptoms before permanent damage sets in, which is why early detection through regular eye exams is so critical.
Discussing her Orbis work, training eye care teams in lower- and middle-income countries — by 2022, this included Cameroon, China, Ghana, and Jamaica — through the organization’s long-term country programs, its Cybersight telemedicine platform, and its Flying Eye Hospital, an aircraft-based teaching hospital. She noted that the relationships built between volunteer faculty and local clinicians continue long after each trip ends.
In her closing dispatch from Mongolia, Giangiacomo thanked the residents and support staff, her Orbis Mongolia hosts, her nursing teammate, and the three local surgeons she worked alongside, calling them talented, caring, and motivated to bring better eye care to their own patients.
Giangiacomo says the lessons run both ways: the challenges she sees abroad mirror those she encounters at home, and each trip continues to shape how she cares for patients back in Wisconsin.
Watch this video from WBAY TV-2 about Dr. Giangiacomo’s mission:
This summary is based on the following sources:
- Green Bay ophthalmologist travels to Mongolia to expand eye care access, by Elyse Noe for WBAY TV-2
- Facebook posts from Tower Clock Eye Center and Orbis International
- Ophthalmologist Annette Giangiacomo On Treating Glaucoma, Maintaining Eye Health, And Orbis’ Flying Eye Hospital – Exclusive Interview, by Robin Zabiegalski for Health Digest
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