Dr. Geoff Tabin receives the "Hero of Compassion" Award from His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, San Francisco (2008). Photo: Geoff Tabin Collection

Cure Blindness

Dr. Geoff Tabin’s global approach to curing preventable blindness in the developing world over the past 20 years has garnered him accolades, awards, international recognition and fame.  In the past five years, he’s been featured in a number of prominent, nationally distributed magazines.  Just last May he graced the cover of National Geographic’s Adventure magazine.  Tabin and his work have also been chronicled in two documentary films: ‘Miracle Doctors’ (Discovery Channel) and ‘Light of the Himalaya’ (Rush HD Network), the latter film, Directed by Michael Brown, took 11 independent film festival awards world-wide.  Tabin may not be a household name (yet) but in the world of ophthalmology and among international social entrepreneurs, Tabin’s exploits to cure preventable blindness—namely cataract blindness—have made him legendary.

Since 1994, Tabin and Nepalese Dr. Sanduk Ruit, have worked closely together curing cataract blindness and other eye disorders in the underserved, outback of the Himalayan kingdoms of Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, India, Pakistan and Nepal.  Their base camp or operations is the Tilganga Eye Center in Kathmandu, Nepal, where Dr. Ruit works tirelessly year round.  Tabin lives in Park City, Utah and he works as a Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Division of International Ophthalmology at the John A. Moran Eye Center of the University of Utah in nearby Salt Lake City.  His main job at Moran allows him to travel back to Asia regularly to continue his work with Dr. Ruit to train local and regional doctors in ophthalmic surgery throughout high Asia.  The two miracle doctor’s non-profit organization, the Himalayan Cataract Project, which officially began in 1996, has been aptly branded Cure Blindness.org for global outreach purposes (www.cureblindness.org).