Orbis will work with AWS to integrate AI-assisted screening to protect premature babies’ sight
NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global eye care nonprofit Orbis announces it has been selected as a winner of the 2026 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant: Children’s Health Innovation Award, a grant opportunity designed to accelerate innovation to improve children’s health outcomes with the use of advanced cloud services. By focusing on children’s health, AWS seeks to bring more focus and attention to a wide variety of causes and care organizations who are dedicated to helping children live longer, healthier lives, through the strategic use of cloud technology. The grant will advance Orbis’s efforts to support neonatal teams in Asia with faster, more accurate screenings for retinopathy of prematurity, a leading cause of blindness in children worldwide.
Orbis was named a recipient in the Children’s Health Innovation Award category, which recognizes highly innovative, mission-critical projects accelerating children’s health innovation using advanced cloud services. Orbis will receive a combination of funding and AWS computing credits, along with implementation support from technical specialists. Proposals were considered based on several criteria, including the innovative and unique nature of the project, impact on mission-critical goals, and clearly defined outcomes and milestones.
“This year’s AWS Children’s Health Innovation Award recipients are doing extraordinary work to improve the lives of children, from the everyday moments to the life-changing ones,” said Rick Buettner, Global Director of Nonprofits at AWS. “Whether it’s using cloud technology to improve bus routes for special needs students or leveraging AI to answer pediatric health questions without subjecting minors to lengthy clinical studies, these organizations are reimagining what’s possible for children. At AWS, we’re honored to support these nonprofits whose work is creating lasting, meaningful change.”
With the AWS Imagine Grant, Orbis will advance a multi-country effort to integrate AI-assisted screening for retinopathy of prematurity, developed by Siloam Vision, into Cybersight, Orbis’s telemedicine and e-learning platform, with the goal of helping neonatal teams identify babies at risk of avoidable sight loss sooner and connect them to timely follow-up care. Building on Orbis’s work with Siloam Vision in Mongolia and Bangladesh, the project will expand access to AI-supported retinopathy of prematurity screening for clinical teams in India and Vietnam as well. AWS funding, cloud computing credits, and technical expertise will help Orbis strengthen the digital infrastructure needed to review retinal images, support clinical decision-making, prioritize urgent cases, and make screening more accessible for families living far from specialist eye care services.
“By bringing AI-assisted retinopathy of prematurity screening into Cybersight AI, we can help make specialized eye care expertise available to neonatal teams wherever they are,” said Nicolas Jaccard, Orbis Director of AI and Software Engineering. “With AWS cloud services and technical support, we will be able to build the secure, scalable infrastructure needed to process retinal images, support clinical decision-making, and help babies at risk of avoidable blindness receive care sooner.”
Since the launch of the Imagine Grant program in 2018, AWS has awarded more than $21 million in unrestricted funding, AWS cloud computing credits, and technical expertise to more than 200 nonprofit organizations. Learn more about past recipients and how nonprofits use AWS to advance their missions around the world at the AWS for nonprofits hub.
For more information on the AWS Imagine Grant, visit the Imagine Grant website.
About Orbis International
Orbis International works around the world to prevent blindness and restore sight for children and adults in places where eye care is out of reach—so vision problems don’t make it harder to learn, earn a living, or enjoy life. Around 1.1 billion people live with vision loss, but with the right care, 90% of it is completely avoidable. That is why Orbis trains doctors, nurses, and other eye care professionals to provide care in their own communities—and works to make sure people of all ages can access the eye exams, glasses, medicine, and surgeries they need to protect and restore their sight. Orbis began this work more than 40 years ago with the Flying Eye Hospital, a teaching hospital on a plane that brings expert training and care where they’re needed most. Today, we also work with local hospitals and clinics across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to make eye care available to more people, and we use and develop technology—like our award-winning Cybersight e-learning and telehealth platform, artificial intelligence screening, and virtual reality training—to help eye care teams treat patients more effectively. Orbis ranks in the top 3% of U.S. charities, having earned top marks for transparency and accountability from Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and the Better Business Bureau. To learn more, please visit orbis.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Orbis International
Jenna Montgomery
Associate Director, Global Communications and Marketing
jenna.montgomery@orbis.org
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SOURCE Orbis International
