Age: 29
Occupation: Senior Resident, Ophthalmology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; Co-Founder, Eyes on Ukraine
When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Michael Kryshtalskyj, then a junior resident at the University of Calgary, watched the news in shock from his Calgary condo. The young doctor was training in ophthalmology and the treatment of eye diseases, and, while he’d never been to the country, as a person of Ukrainian descent, he wanted to help.
Kryshtalskyj spent the next 48 hours reaching out to ophthalmology experts, including the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS). On Feb. 26, 2022, he founded Eyes on Ukraine, a charity adopted by COS that has since delivered more than $1.5 million in surgical equipment to help Ukrainians with eye injuries — and gained international attention as a model for global health innovation.
“Balancing Eyes on Ukraine with residency has been tremendous work, but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” says Kryshtalskyj, who was awarded the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal by the Government of Alberta for his charity work.
Eyes on Ukraine has helped rebuild surgical trauma centres destroyed by the war and is helping to establish the country’s first public eye bank for patients who need complex eye repair. Kryshtalskyj is also developing 3D-printed alternatives to expensive instruments to help low-resourced patients. (An exophthalmometer, for example, used to measure eye protrusion, typically costs around $2,000 — with 3D printing, the price drops to $35.)
As the war continues, the charity is prioritizing educating Ukrainian surgeons in the treatment of complex eye trauma. Next year, the organization will bring two surgeons to UCalgary for a humanitarian fellowship in advanced reconstructive techniques. Those surgeons will then be able to train colleagues back in Ukraine — a sharing of knowledge that hits close to home for Kryshtalskyj, now in his fifth year of residency. “This experience has impressed on me the power we can have, at any stage in our lives, to make meaningful differences on a broad scale,” he says.
Thank yous
“My parents, Bo and Nina Kryshtalskyj; my mentor, Dr. Karim Punja; my friends Kian Madjedi and Rukhsaar Daya; and the passionate surgeons of the COS Foundation-Eyes on Ukraine team.”
Top 40 Under 40 2024
Eluvier Acosta & Juan Castillo
