CBM partner Dr Andrew Blaikie shortlisted for NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Award 2023

*Update* We are delighted to announce that Andrew Blaikie was announced as the winner of Global Citizenship Award. We are thrilled to celebrate this huge achievement.

We are excited to announce that CBM’s partner Dr Andrew Blaikie has been shortlisted for the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Award at this year’s Scottish Health Awards. The winner will be announced on 2 November at the O2 Academy in Edinburgh.

The prestigious Scottish Health Awards are run by the Daily Record in partnership with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government. Over 900 nominations were received for this year’s awards, and we are delighted to announce that our long-term partner Dr Andrew Blaikie, Consultant Ophthalmologist with NHS Fife and lead for the Arclight Project based at the University of St Andrews, has been selected as one of the finalist in the Global Citizenship category. He was nominated for his work with the Arclight device, which is transforming the way eye care is delivered in low-and-middle-income countries.

For the past 10 years Dr Blaikie has been working with William J Williams, an optometrist from Liverpool to develop the Arclight to be a low cost, simple to use yet highly effective alternative to traditional ophthalmoscopes. The Arclight can be used to screen for all the major blinding eye disease found in low resource settings easily and quickly. Being solar powered it avoids the need for expensive and often hard to find batteries. More than 40,000 Arclights have now been distributed in over 100 countries with the World Health Organization recently including the Arclight in their recommendations for newborn eye examinations globally.

Elfreda Whitty, Programme Manager, CBM UK says:

I’ve seen first-hand how effective the Arclight is and the difference it makes in helping to prevent avoidable blindness. We are really excited that Dr Blaikie has been nominated for the Global Citizenship Award for all his work with the Arclight.”

The Global Citizenship Award celebrates high quality, ethical and sustainable global health work in low-and-middle-income countries. It recognises the dedication and commitment of an inspiring individual, group or team who are passionate and committed to working with partners overseas to improve the quality of health and social care.

Dr Blaikie first worked with CBM in 2011 in Tanzania. Since then, he has helped us provide inclusive eye care to remote communities in many CBM Global programmes. Just this week, Dr Blaikie is in Zimbabwe delivering training as part of our new inclusive education and eye health project Masvingo province.

Elfreda Whitty and Mark Chadwick from CBM UK will attend the Awards ceremony on Thursday alongside representatives from NHS Fife and the University of St, Andrews. We look forward to hearing news from the ceremony!

Read more about the Global Citizenship Award [opens in new tab]

Read more about the Arclight [opens in new tab]

Photo: Andrew Blaikie teaching ophthalmic nurses in Tanzania how to examine with Arclight Project tools. Photo provided by Dr Andrew Blaikie.