Angkor Hospital for Children’s (AHC) neonatal unit was established in 2013 to treat newborns who need specialized and intensive care. With four full-time neonatologists who have extensive experience, skills and knowledge, AHC provides excellent care to babies born in Siem Reap and across Cambodia.
The eye clinic is one of the hospital’s busiest units. With a full-time ophthalmologist, a part-time ophthalmologist and a trained eye doctor, our clinic sees over 14,000 children annually and performs more than 250 operations monthly, including cataract, major and minor surgeries for children from across Cambodia.
Seva is proud to have supported a new camera to replace an aging device for this project. But we also worked with AHC to evaluate the entire patient- and parent-journey to ensure that the technology fit into a project plan to ensure increased access.
To coincide with World Sight Day and in collaboration with the National Eye Health Programme, AHC produced and launched an educational video on Retinopathy of Prematurity across six social media platforms: Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Telegram, Instagram, and TikTok.
The campaign reached 158,132 people, substantially increasing public awareness of ROP, the importance of early screening, and available treatment options for premature infants.
Patient Journey – Leakhena & Dalis
Featured in the video above, we have more details on their story below.
Awareness
Leakhena is a mother who lives in the Thlok Angdoung Village of Siem Reap, Cambodia. She delivered a baby girl named Dalis at just 28 weeks. Dalis stayed at the hospital for 6 weeks because she had a severe lung problem.
The compassionate doctor there advised Leakhena to get Dalis’ eyes checked at AHC after she was ready to go home. He explained the retinopathy of prematurity problem that Dalis might suffer with and encouraged Leakhena to bring her daughter for an eye examination. In general, doctors in Cambodia are aware of eye conditions and risk factors.
Leakhena felt very worried about her daughter’s eyes after a long and stressful hospital stay. She knew she wouldn’t stop worrying unless the ophthalmologist could confirm that Dalis’s eyes had no problem.
Visit
Leakhena got up early, got ready and left home at 7:45am to bring her daughter to see an AHC ophthalmologist on a Tuesday in February 2025. They drove with Leakhena’s husband to AHC by motorbike and arrived at AHC at 8am.
First, Leakhena met the security guard, who gave her directions to the eye clinic. Then she went to the registration counter to receive a patient ID number. After that, Dalis’ parents brought her to the eye clinic and waited to see the doctors, which took about an hour.
Our eye doctors needed to perform a fundus exam to check Dalis’ retina. To do so, they gave Dalis three sets of eye drops every 15 minutes to make her pupil dilate so they could properly examine her.
After 45 minutes, Dalis’ pupils still weren’t opened enough, so they sent her to get an ultrasound. The ultrasound can detect masses without the pupil fully dilating. After more time, her pupils opened up enough to receive the retina exam.
Because of the first screen could not recognize her problem, they scheduled Dalis for a follow up in one month. Dalis and her parents returned home by 12:30pm. The whole eye check-up process took around 4 hours and the family paid around US$15 for the whole appointment.
Leakhena felt relief after the AHC ophthalmologist examined her daughter. She gained more awareness about her daughter’s eye health and now feels more confident since her daughter received the screening and follow-up plan from AHC’s ophthalmologists.
Treatment & Outcome
Dalis has now received an ultrasound and fundus exam for her eyes. After the first screening, her eyes were not indicated of any retinal risk. But she’s still growing and follow up continues. Our ophthalmologist explained Dalis’ situation clearly to Leakhena and her husband, and they made her an appointment to return in one month.
This experience was challenging only because our ophthalmologist could not indicate the retinal risk of Dalis’s eyes on her first screening. Keeping parents informed and motivated to continue care is a critical part of the project. Dalis has now completed her screening and follow-up. Leakhena was very happy and relieved to receive confirmation that Dalis is growing well and has normal vision!
Staff Experience
In project like this – that go beyond technology and into extensive collaboration and awareness to best serve patients – the staff expertise and attention are critical.
Ping Lomorng, Neonatal Unit Manager
It’s very important to have modern technology involved in treatment, especially for infants who are at high risk of retinopathy of prematurity. It involves less pain & less complications is safer for patients.
The new machine will help detect retinal disorders early, including retinoblastoma, retinopathy of prematurity and glaucoma. It also helps provide non-invasive and painless imaging for patients. This best supports children’s recovery and monitoring, provides better documentation, education and research & improves the quality of treatment at our hospital for children across Cambodia!
Dr. Yin Sopheakboth, ophthalmologist and Chief of AHC Eye Clinic
Monitoring & Results
To strengthen early detection and referral of ROP, AHC integrated ROP into its Saving Babies Lives (SBL) Neonatal Resuscitation Training program.
Between August 2025 and February 2026, 21 training sessions were conducted for 127 healthcare professionals from 21 referral hospitals and health centers, including facilities in remote areas of Preah Vihear Province.
Community awareness is essential to ensuring families seek care before vision loss becomes irreversible. Through AHC’s regular village outreach program, ROP education was integrated into routine health education sessions alongside topics such as non-communicable diseases, dengue prevention, WASH, nutrition, and first aid.
During the reporting period from 1 April, 2025 – 30 June, 2026:
- 1,446 diagnostic ultrasound examinations for cataract, myopia, media opacity, and other complex eye conditions.
- 647 retinal images captured using the Smartscope, supporting diagnosis and monitoring of ROP, retinoblastoma, optic nerve edema, and optic neuritis.
- 127 healthcare workers from 21 health centers and referral hospitals trained on ROP screening, early identification, and referral pathways.
- 493 primary school teachers trained to increase awareness of childhood eye health and ROP.
- 420 village leaders, Village Health Support Groups (VHSGs), commune council members, police officers, and Women’s Affairs representatives received community awareness training.
- 5,737 community members participated in ROP awareness sessions through village outreach activities.
- 158,132 people reached through the nationwide ROP awareness campaign across multiple social media platforms.
A huge thanks to AHC and their wonderful teams for this brilliant progress!
Leave a Reply