Sankara Nethralaya. A Mission For Vision

Through data acquired over the last 25 years, Dr. Ravindra D Bapat spoke at length on the need to look for alternatives in the Ayurvedic system of medicine at the annual Sri. V. Venugopal Endowment lecture at Sankara Nethralaya on February 6, 2010. While the modern scientific medicine continues to appeal to the scientific enquiring mind, because it explains the cause and effect relationship and proposes treatment, Dr. Bapat said that there were still a number of grey areas which were still not properly understood.

His talk on “Lacunae in Modern Medicine, why shun Ayurved!,” also touched upon the future challenges that modern scientific medicine is likely to face, including side effects of drugs, antibiotic resistance, use of biotechnology, cost intensive health care, effect of industrialization etc.

Dr. Bapat is at present the Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi Mission University of Health Sciences. He is also Professor Emeritus, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Seth G. S. Medical College and K. E. M. Hospital, Parel, Mumbai.
A recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Bapat has also authored many books.

The Sri. V Venugopal Endowment lecture was instituted by his son (late) Sri. V Mohan Rao, former President Medical Research Foundation, and his family with the laudable intention of disseminating preventive, curative and research-based data on health and healthcare  to public at large.

An ‘Executive Vision Clinic’ was inaugurated at the Olympia Park, Guindy on February 4, 2010.

Functioning from Monday to Saturday, the clinic will offer counselling on computer vision syndrome apart from regular ophthalmic examination. Those who need further treatment will be referred to the CU Shah Sankara Nethralaya hospital at St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.
 
Sankara Nethralaya Chairman Emeritus Dr. SS Badrinath, Chief General Manager Mr. P.R.Raveendran and General Manager Ms. Akila Ganesan participated at the function.

From left: Dr. T S Surendran, Dr. Vineet Ratra, Chairman Emeritus Dr. SS Badrinath, Chief Guest Lion K G Ramakrishna Murthy,  Chairman Mr. V Vaidyanathan and  Dr. V V Jaichandran along with the award winners.

The clarion call for service marked the 61st Republic Day celebrations held at Sankara Nethralaya on January 26, 2010. 

Chief Guest, Lion K G Ramakrishna Murthy, Past International Director, Lions club International, who unfurled the flag on the occasion, urged the gathering to follow and build on the path of service, truthfulness and humility — qualities which will serve the well-being of the future generations. Describing Chairman Emeritus Dr. SS Badrinath as a “soul amongst us,” he credited Dr. Badrinath for “bringing about a corporate culture in social responsibility.”  

Service awards for employees who have completed 10 & 20 years respectively were presented on the occasion. Merit award for employees’ children and certificates to Ophthalmic Nursing Assistants & Ophthalmic Theatre Assistants were also given.

Sankara Nethralaya received from Shriram Transport and Finance Company Ltd., Mumbai, through Lion GV Raman, Group Executive Chairman, a “humble contribution” of Rs. 10 lakhs. Also on the occasion, Lion Raghunathan, Past District Governor, pledged a lead gift of $100,000 to the Lions Club International Foundation and designated this gift to Sankara Nethralaya.

The 75th Jayanthi celebration of his Holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam was held at Sankara Nethralaya on January 25, 2010.

Describing Chairman Emeritus, Dr. Badrinath as the “aatma” to the “parmatama,” Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal spoke on the importance of vision — the eye being the most important organ — and lauded the efforts of Sankara Nethralaya in providing quality and affordable ophthalmic care to society.

His Holiness also blessed Sankara Nethralaya’s latest undertaking — The Sankara Nethralaya Academy —, the proposal of which was submitted to His Holiness for his blessings.  In its continued efforts to ensure quality ophthalmic services, Sankara Nethralaya will set up The Sankara Nethralaya Academy — a one-of-its-kind academy — which will offer wide-ranging certificate and fellowship programmes to train ophthalmologist, optometrists, nurses and administration personnel. According to Chairman Emeritus Dr. SS Badrinath, the programmes, which will commence from April 2010, will teach and train personnel working in eye hospitals, the “A to Z on how to perform, conduct in a service-oriented organisation and deliver care in a professional manner.”

Sankara Nethralaya to launch academy
The Hindu, January 26, 2010

Sankara Nethralaya to set up academy
Times of India, February 1, 2010

Expert ophthalmic opinion coupled with competitions for students and a walk to highlight the importance of paediatric ophthalmology was part of the two-day awareness programme conducted recently by the Elite School of Optometry (ESO) and CU Shah Sankara Nethralaya. 

Held on January 23 and 24, the awareness programme was attended by over 600 people, including around 350 students who underwent a free and comprehensive eye examination.  The awareness session kick-started on January 23 with a “Walk,” to highlight the importance of “Child Eye Care,” which was flagged off by eminent film and theatre personality Kalaimamani S. Ve. Shekhar.

Describing the initiative, by ESO and CU Shah Sankara Nethralaya in spreading awareness among the public, as “innovative,” Mr. Shekhar described the efforts as a “great service to humanity.”

For his dedicated services in ocular immunology, Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas, Director, Ocular Pathology, was awarded the Dr. P Siva Reddy Oration award at the inaugural session of the 68th annual conference of the All India Ophthalmological Society in Kolkata on January 21, 2010.

Over 5,000 Ophthalmologists participated at the four-day event which saw over 1,000 speakers and faculty hold more than 200 sessions of scientific deliberations on Ophthalmology.

The presence of Information Technology, in today’s day and age, has not only fastened the pace at which operations take place but has also brought about a marked improvement in the quality of services.     

In India, and elsewhere, one such area which has benefited from IT applications is the healthcare sector. Sankara Nethralaya, one of India’s leading eye care hospitals, is a fine example of an organisation which has used IT-based initiatives to improve ophthalmic care and its reach in India. The influence of Information Technology has indeed been profound in the healthcare sector in developing countries like India, where healthcare services has witnessed an exponential growth over the last decade or two.

Chennai eye hospital uses IT advances to deliver services
Desi Talk, January 8, 2010.

Eminent epigraphist and Tamil scholar Shri. Iravadham Mahadevan has been selected for this year’s Ayyan Tiruvalluvar award. The award, which carries Rs. 1 lakh and a gold medal, is given every year to Tamil scholars, poets, social and cultural activists.

Through the Vidyasagar Educational Trust, established in memory of his son Vidyasagar, Shri. Iravadham Mahadevan made a munificent donation to establish an institution to promote Biomedical Technology and Science as a unit of Medical Research Foundation (MRF) at Sankara Nethralaya. Accordingly, the Vidyasagar Institute of Biomedical Technology and Science (VIBS) was established at Sankara Nethralaya on October 25, 2006.

The present ongoing postgraduates programme included under VIBS is the Master of Science in Medical Laboratory Technology conducted by the Medical Research Foundation as a collaborative programme of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.

A recipient of several awards and honours, Shri. Mahadevan was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1970 for his research on the Indus script and 22 years later, the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research for his work on the Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions. In 2009, Iravatham Mahadevan was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Read more…

The Hindu, January 05, 2010. 

Eye care is synonymous with Sankara Nethralaya. But had S S Badrinath taken that flight to America in 1972, it would have been a blind alley for thousands.

PUSHPA NARAYAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

DR S S BADRINATH | CHENNAI “It’s all team work. This place will continue to grow long after I am gone”

Thank god for the change in travel plans that Dr S S Badrinath made on a May morning in 1972. It was on that day the visionary ophthalmologist, pursuing a private practice in the US at the time, decided to stay back. He went on to establish Sankara Nethralaya (SN) in Chennai in 1978 with the express mission of serving the poor and needy. In a country that is home to one-third of the world’s blind, the netralaya was manna from heaven.

Forty per cent of the surgeries — including 10,000 cataract operations in a year — are conducted free-of-cost at SN. The centre has a unique operational model which allows it to cross-subsidise expenses for the poor. All doctors here,
including the founder, are paid salaries, not consultation fees.

“That,” says Badrinath, “has helped us sustain ourselves while carrying out surgeries free of cost.” As for acquiring state-of-the-art equipment, there are always generous donors. In fact, Badrinath started SN with funds from donors and refused to take any loan because he didn’t want the pressure to make money to get to him.

The centre is also the fountainhead of ophthalmology research in India. Currently, the largest number of scientific papers on ophthalmology in the country comes out of Sankara Nethralaya. A pioneer in more ways than one, the hospital was the first to introduce photorefractive keratectomy and laser technology to correct refractive errors. It has performed stem cell therapy using a patient’s tooth — a procedure called osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis. It also runs an optometry school and a research centre for stem cell and genetic therapy to find ways to cure several types of blindness.

The centre has come a long way from its modest beginning. Opened as a clinic with just three consultants, today it has more than 80 consultants who perform at least 100 surgeries in a day. Sitting in a room on the second floor of an imposing building, the 71-year-old, tall, well-built doctor is modest about his achievements. “It’s all team work,” he says simply.

At least 1,200 people walk in here every day from all corners of the country, and the corridors bustle with doctors, optometrists, paramedics and nurses attending to an endless stream of patients. Badrinath, who is the hospital’s employee no 2 — the first is his driver Arumugam, who has retired — says its biggest strength is a mix of different people but with the same dedication and goals. “This place will continue to grow long after I am gone,” he smiles.

Source: The TOI Crest, January 02, 2010

Smt. Sulochana Amma and Dr. Vasanthi Badrinath, Director, Clinical Laboratory, Sankara Nethralaya, at the rededication of the Sri. Nathella Sampathu Chetty Clinical Laboratory on December 31, 2009.

Following its renovation, the Sri. Nathella Sampathu Chetty Clinical Laboratory was rededicated by Smt. Sulochana Amma, wife of (late) Sri. Nathella Sampathu Chetty Garu, on December 31, 2009 at Sankara Nethralaya.
   
Smt. Sulochana Amma lighted the traditional lamp following which she and her family were shown around the refurbished clinical laboratory facility.  A detailed document listing the activities and achievements of the clinical laboratory was presented to the Smt. Sulochana Amma and her family, who donated Rs. 1 lakh to SWAN (Sankara Nethralaya Women Auxiliary) on the occasion.