This was stated by Kathy Spahn, president and executive director of Orbis, a global eye care organisation, while talking to The Daily Star on Thursday.

She was sharing Orbis's future plans during her two-day goodwill mission to Bangladesh.

Kathy said e-consultation is an Orbis programme connecting a partner ophthalmologist located anywhere in the world with an Orbis Telemedicine Mentor (Telementor) for professional assistance.

"It's a specially designed web site using which ophthalmologists can diagnose through consulting a mentor sitting far away from the patient," she added.

"Frequently asked questions about eye health can assist an ophthalmologist to make the best diagnosis," said Kathy.

E-consultation has two sections. The Featured Cases section shows a wide variety of actual patients with clinical pictures and history. Each case has commentary by one or more experts who provide a diagnosis and suggestions for management.

The Patient Consultation section is the most advanced component and is being introduced in the country for the first time.

This programme connects a partner ophthalmologist (or group of ophthalmologists) with a team of Orbis Telementors for the management of specific cases.

"These cases are submitted via Internet with digital images and history. Only those, registered in the Patient Consultation section, can log in for submission of a case and thus avoid misjudgement in the diagnosis of patients," Kathy said.

The Orbis Telemedicine programme known as the Cyber Sight programme has established 17 partner programmes in 15 countries till January this year.

Mentors in the Orbis Telemedicine programme have several ways of participating including the opportunity to travel to the partner site (contact), consultation via the Internet (consult), and providing educational material for the web site (content).

The Cyber Sight programme provides partners with digital cameras and computers to strengthen local capacity.

Kathy also inaugurated a modern eye care centre in the city under the banner of Sandhani Bangladesh.

The proposed 200-bed hospital-cum-diagnostic centre would be able to carryout cornea transplant and preserve more cornea.