A recent article from the UC Berkeley NewsCenter highlights Fatima Elkabti ’09, whose cutting-edge medical project will combat diabetes-related blindness in Libya.
Now a graduate student at the UC Berkeley School of Optometry, Elkabti is working on training Libyan doctors to perform detailed retinal imaging during routine patient check-ups. Doctors will then put these images online to be diagnosed remotely, allowing the disease to be treated before it develops into blindness. Ultimately, the project hopes to screen 30,000 Libyans, and of those treat an estimated 5-10 percent with inoperable retinopathy.
Elkabti, who majored in biology and English while at Scripps, became interested in the digital imaging process after learning about it in a course on diabetic healthcare. She immediately approached her professor about bringing it to Libya, where much of her family lives. Diabetes is common but often undiagnosed in Libya. Elkabti originally considered moving to Libya, but decided against, opting instead to train doctors already there, as that would have a greater impact.
Diabetes-related retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. Advances in vision screening allow doctors to take detailed digital images inside patients’ eyes, which are then used to identify the signs of retinopathy. Once diagnosed, laser treatment can destroy the broken blood vessels, preventing the damage from spreading.