ASCRS 2025: Pinpointing your "why" and brushing up on clinical skills are vital to humanitarian ophthalmology

The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS) included a wide range of programming to help clinicians improve their skills and elevate their careers. At the ASCRS Foundation Symposium, a panel of ophthalmologists shared global perspectives from their experiences performing humanitarian work in high-risk, low-resource areas. Shehzad Batliwala, DO, better known to his patients as Dr. Shehz, shared pearls from his recent experiences in Gaza, where he put his clinical skills and his critical thinking to the test. The day after the symposium, Dr. Shehz spoke with the Eye Care Network about the insights he shared onstage, documenting what clinicians need to know if they're interested in global ophthalmology.

Before embarking on a humanitarian trip, Dr. Shehz counseled clinicians to spend a lot of time brushing up on their surgical skills. Often, he said, he would encounter severe ocular trauma and complex cases, which made surgeries more challenging. But just as frequently, he faced environmental obstacles unlike those he would encounter in a typical day at his Texas practice.

"I showed some videos in my presentation where the electricity would go out, several times in the middle of my cases," he recounted. "We didn't have bipolar cautery to cauterize blood vessels. There were a lot of resources that just didn't exist over there."

Dr. Shehz also noted that clinicians should consider their purpose for seeking out humanitarian work before connecting with a partner organization. Finding a "why," a driving force behind the desire to travel to a high-risk zone, is vital since the work itself is life-threatening and requires disrupting family life and spending time away from an existing practice.

Returning to the US, Dr. Shehz carried lessons from his experience a humanitarian ophthalmologist. "I have a much better appreciation for the miracle that is cataract surgery. And that sounds very cheesy, but...it's such a such a miraculous thing. I have a better appreciation for people that have come before me, who have laid the foundations," Dr. Shehz said. "Spending 3 weeks in Gaza, seeing the kinds of injuries that I saw, and really feeling helpless and powerless in terms of what I could do for the people there, has made me appreciate more of of what a miracle it is that we do what we do."

"What I've gained is perspective," he continued. "I operate in Lubbock, Texas. It's kind of a rural area. But a bad day in Lubbock, Texas, is really not a bad day, when you have that perspective."