India’s fight against avoidable blindness is no longer about expanding clinics alone. It also depends on whether the country can build an eye care workforce that is skilled, connected and distributed beyond major cities. With 15 ophthalmologists per million people and specialists concentrated in urban centres, the gap between demand and available expertise remains significant. Digital Training Hubs (DTHs) offer one way to address it, not simply as training centres, but as distributed learning infrastructure that can connect professionals with skills, mentors and clinical resources over time.
Bringing training closer to where care happens
A DTH brings simulation, tele-mentoring, telemedicine, tele-education and hands-on training together. In India, Digital Training Hubs have been strengthened at leading eye care institutions, with facilities such as wet labs, dry labs with artificial eyes and virtual reality supporting practical learning. The model brings specialised training closer to healthcare professionals who may otherwise have limited opportunities to access advanced clinical education.
The distinction matters because medical training cannot end with a workshop or a fellowship. A surgeon may need repeated practice before performing a complex procedure independently, while a clinician working in a district hospital may need advice when a difficult case appears months after formal training. DTHs create that continuity. Simulation allows skills to be practised safely; remote surgical mentorship brings experienced faculty into live procedures; and case discussions help clinicians revisit decisions after they return to their home institutions.
A learning network, not a one-time course
The digital layer extends this learning beyond the physical hub. Cybersight, the online training and mentorship platform, connects eye care professionals to courses, webinars, surgical demonstrations, virtual case discussions and international experts. Its consultation service also enables practitioners to seek advice on complex cases. During the pandemic, a Virtual Flying Eye Hospital programme connected 160 ophthalmologists, residents, nurses, biomedical engineers and technicians from 15 partner hospitals across 10 states.
The wider workforce matters too. Ophthalmic nurses, optometrists and technicians influence every stage of a patient’s journey, from screening and diagnosis to treatment and follow-up. Training them alongside ophthalmologists creates stronger teams rather than isolated specialists.
There is evidence of the scale that sustained capacity building can achieve. In India, the four Digital Training Hubs established so far have facilitated over 2,200 trainings for ophthalmic professionals, 68 per cent of them being women. These Digital Training Hubs serve eye-care professionals across northern, southern, northeastern and western India.
Building a learning health workforce
India’s opportunity now is to connect these pieces into a continuous learning system. Hospitals, medical institutions, professional bodies and public health programmes can use digital infrastructure to keep skills current, share expertise across regions and respond more quickly to changing disease patterns.
This approach could have significance beyond eye care. Countries facing similar shortages of specialised health professionals need ways to move knowledge without requiring every clinician to travel to a major centre. India can demonstrate how physical training hubs, digital mentorship and local clinical practice can work together to build a learning health workforce at scale.
The goal is not to make training digital for its own sake. It is to make expertise available when and where it is needed, and to ensure that learning continues long after a course ends. That is what can turn investment in training into lasting improvements in eye care.