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Visit to Unity Health Londrina in Brazil

August 17, 2026

Good ideas are like confetti: they become more valuable when we share and connect them.

During Unity Health Londrina in Brazil, Maaike van Zuilen, Global Lead of the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH), presented on behalf of the WAEH about the future of eyecare and the impact of international collaboration in improving eye care.

The challenges eye hospitals face are remarkably similar worldwide: growing demand for care, workforce shortages, financial pressure, and rapid developments in AI, data, and new models of care. No eye hospital can solve these challenges alone.

That is why international collaboration should not be seen as optional, but as a strategic instrument. By connecting people and organisations around shared ambitions, we can learn faster, innovate more effectively, and apply proven solutions on a broader global scale!

Many thanks to the organisers of Unity Health Londrina for the kind invitation, the inspiring conversations and the warm welcome: thanks Rangel da Silva Camila Gonçalves Lemos and Phillipe Fabrício de Mello. We would especially like to thank Rodrigo Hasegawa and the Hoftalon Eye Hospital team for their hospitality and for bringing together people, ideas and different perspectives.

On Friday Santiago Venegas, CEO from Clínica Pasteur, and Maaike van Zuilen visited the Hoftalon Eye Hospital with several locations, guided by Rodrigo Hasegawa, CEO of Hoftalon Eye Hospital. Each location had its own story, including a former church that is now being transformed into an eye hospital. A remarkable example of how vision, creativity and strategic choices can give an existing space an entirely new purpose! 

In November, we will return to Brazil for the 20th WAEH Annual Meeting, jointly hosted by Instituto Suel Abujamra in São Paulo, Hoftalon Eye Hospital in Londrina and Clínica Oftalmológica Pasteur in Chile.

We warmly invite all WAEH members and other interested eye-care professionals to register and join us. It will be a unique opportunity to experience different eye-care organisations, exchange knowledge with international colleagues and explore the strategic challenges and opportunities shaping the future of eye care.

Connect the confetti. Share the confetti. And turn it into impact!

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