August 2016
Fifteenth Dr E Vathilingam Memorial Scientific Session
DR E Vaithilingam Memorial Scientific session conducted by Elite School of Optometry had a remarkable event successively for the fifteenth time on 6th and 7th august 2016 at Sri V D Swami Auditorium. Around 325 delegates participated, Along with them we had 103 delegates from 12 different schools of Optometry located across the country.
The Exuberant two days session started with Welcome address followed by a note about Dr EV Memorial Scientific sessions held annually in memory of late DR E Vaithilingam. Dr Krishna Kumar, Principal Elite School of Optometry gave an interesting talk about late Dr EV’s associations and recalled Dr EV’s memorable experiences with ESO and Sankara Nethralaya.
The highlights of this year scientific session was ESO-SN’s Log MAR & IPVS(illuminated Pocket Vision Screener) charts ,were released by Dr T S Surrendran and Dr Pramod Bhende .A diligent work with extra ordinary minds of optometry team behind the screen for almost an year ,was there to achieve this milestone. Free Paper session, Clinician to Researcher, E-Poster sessions were held. E- Abstract book which was introduced this time ,( http://www.eso.sankaranethralaya.org/drev2016-abstracts- ebook/index.html#p=1) received applauds and appreciations from the participants .Along with these initiatives, we as a team thrived to take optometry education into next level by conducting a workshop on Advanced Teaching and Learning methods in Optometry Education for the faculties in the fields of Optometry and Vision Science across the country .Our Guest speakers , ESO Alumnus Dr Hema Radhakrishnan ,Senior Lecturer&Deputy Associate Dean ,University of Manchester,UK gave talk on “Peripheral Refraction & Myopia progression “and DR Richa Verma ,Lecturer from Deakin University ,Australia conducted the workshop on “Advanced Teaching and Learning methods in Optometric Education” with innovative concepts of team based learning (TBL) and problem based learning (PBL) .
On the Second day, Dr Sumathi Narayanan President, Creative Communication& Management Care and faculty of ESO gave a wonderful talk on “Compassionate Communications for Clinicians”. Her talk had roars of applauds from the participants and she had nailed the word compassion, among all our optometry professionals. The Scientific Session came to an end with Quiz , distribution of travel grants, best paper and best poster presentation .Under innovative instruments category Mr. Jude, student of Elite school of Optometry bagged for creating Portable Visual Field analyzer and Ms Jamuna Sri & Ms Indira Kumari from SRM University bagged for creating Construction of portable projectable Hess chart. For video contests Ms Lavanya from Shri Prakash Institute of Optometry won the prize . In free paper session ,Ms Archayeeta Rakshit ,Optometrist Sankara Nethralaya won for her oral presentation on “Effective tool to measure depth of suppression in amblyopes in a clinical set-up “ and Ms Navya Deepthi Davara from Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry won for her oral presentation on “ Eye tracking in visual search experiment in normally sighted adults”. Under E poster category Mr. Jothi Balaji, Manager – Optometry won for “Rubrics for clinical optometry skill evaluation: the Sankara nethralaya experience” and Nikhil, student from Nethradhama School of Optometry won for “The correlation between macular thickness and myopic refractive error”. In Clinician to Researcher session Mr. Amit Bhowmick on “Pseudo convergence insufficiency: clinical findings and management for the primary eye care practitioner-a case report” & Ms Shubikhsa, student ESO on ADEM & NMO-inflammatory demyelination won the prizes. Two days scientific session was a scientific feast in all fields of Optometry and Vision science with sharing of knowledge in different expertise .Awaiting for the next scientific feast.
Sankara Nethralaya Alumni congregate over a dynamic session
The Alumni ensemble at Sankara Nethralaya symbolizes a unique feature unlike other meets, for it encompasses a gathering for a scientific know- how exchange, the opening statement by Dr. Mohan Rajan, Secretary, Sankara Nethralaya Alumni Association captured the spirit of the 27th Sankara Nethralaya Alumni meet on 19th July 2016. Extending his warm welcome to the more than 190 enthusiastic participants from across the country and the world, renowned eye surgeon and CEO of Rajan Eye Care expressed his deep thanks to Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas, Director of Uvea and Ocular Pathology for his tremendous support for the event through the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, expressing a high word of praise for his academic excellence he remarked that he had brought great pride to his mentor by surpassing him in the number of international publications and journal contributions. Dr Jyotirmay Biswas dedicated the day’s proceedings in memory of Dr. Surbhit Choudhry, Director, Eye Health Centre, Noida, a Vitreo Retinal expert groomed by Sankara Nethralaya, recalling his glorious career and versatile personality.
The day’s sessions, themed “Debates and Discussions in Ophthalmology” started on a vibrant note with discussions and presentations on challenging topics like “Globe Rupture precedence over orbital fracture”, “Vitrectomy – therapeutic role in Uveitis disease control”, “Dry Eyes and artificial tears”, “Diabetic macular edema and its treatment” by a host of specialists on a platform for knowledge transfer.
Delivering the SN Alumni Oration Dr. Anita Agarwal, Professor of ophthalmology at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the proud author of the Fifth Edition of the Gass Atlas of Macular Disease and recipient of 2014 J. Donald M. Gass Medal for outstanding contributions in understanding Macular diseases awarded by the Macula Society and the 2015 Optic (UK) Lecture Medal awarded by the Royal college of Ophthalmology UK, paid rich encomiums to her mentor Dr Prof J Donald M Gass – through a talk ‘A Genius and traversal through his journey’. She recalled how the genius immaculately and meticulously handcrafted each diagnosis by preparing sketches prior to the advent of high end ophthalmic equipments, which captured miniscule information. She remarked that her mentor was one amongst the ten most influential ophthalmologists’ of the century and co-authoring landmark research papers with him on the genetics of macular degeneration was a learning curve in her career.
Congratulating Dr. Anita Agarwal on the stupendous journey of the genius, Dr SS Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus hailed praises on the consultants for the RETINA summit, embracing the theme “Guru Dhevo Bhava”. He used the platform to invite all the Alumni to the forthcoming music concerts in the USA being performed in memory of the legendary music icon Dr. M S Subbulakshmi, whose charity shows raised huge funds for Sankara Nethralaya.
The day’s witnessed interesting talks by members participating in the “Nataraja Pillai free paper session”, the prize for the best talk was bagged by Dr Mohamed Shahid Alam, Associate Consultant, Department of Oculoplasty, Sankara Nethralaya for his exciting lecture on “3-D ocular prosthesis fabrication”. The event also witnessed felicitation to Dr. D. Ramamurthy, AIOS President and concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Mohan Rajan.
The crusaders against blindness adulate the champions of light and hope
Helen Keller Remembrance Day was observed with reverence on Tuesday, 7th June 2016, from 5.30.PM at the Sri. V.D. Swami Auditorium, Sankara Nethralaya, 18, College Road, Chennai 600006 by the Lions Club of Central Madras in association with Sankara Nethralaya.
The function being held as a honour to the indomitable courage and hope of a person who had over the years become an iconic figure for the vision impaired and crusaders against blindness started aptly with a quote from her talk “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. The highest result of education is tolerance’, ‘the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision” – quoted the Chief guest of the day MJF Lion S. Rajendran, President, Lions Club of Central Madras in his welcome address adding that the Lions Club International was proud to observe Helen Keller day every year for over 17 years.
Lion Senguttuvan presented the genesis of the awards, following which Ms. Renjini Madhavan, Manager – Training, Department of Optometry praised Dr. G Sitalakshmi as the “Alice in wonderland – Sankara Nethralaya” with innumerable credits as a corneal surgeon and expertise in osteo odonto keratoprosthesis.
Felicitating Vice Chairman Sankara Nethralaya Dr T. S. Surendran for his remarkable achievement of being conferred the FRCS, the Chief guest of the day, gave away the “I” (EYE) care awards to the Mobile Eye Surgical Unit, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai and Lions Sight First Eye Hospital, Loresho, Nairobi, Kenya for their institutional contribution in serving the downtrodden and the under privileged. The ‘Knight of the Blind award’ was presented to Mrs. Sudha Srinivasan, a visually impaired bank official with several international certifications to her credit and a motivational speaker, ‘Dr. G.Sitalakshmi Gift of Sight” Award in memory of Dr. Sitalakshmi, a phenomenal cornea surgeon, was presented to Dr.Jyotee Trivedy, Lions Sight First Hospital, Loresho, Nairobi, Kenya by Lion Andal Rajaram who paid rich laurels to the yeoman service rendered by the young doctor with over 45000 successful cataract surgeries to her credit, at remote corners of the dark continent, bringing light of vision to the poor and needy through her 100 odd outreach programs and being an inspiration to women.
Chief Guest of the day, PMJF Lion. N.S.Sankar, International Director, Lions Clubs International, showered encomiums on the great work being carried out by Sankara Nethralaya in alleviating the suffering of the blind and visually impaired for nearly four decades now. He extended an invitation to Sankara Nethralaya to set up a Lions Sankara Nethralaya centre at Pondicherry in their newly constructed building under the Tsunami Reconstruction program, to serve patients in the neighbourhood.
To make the occasion more significant, the Lions club extended their helping hands by giving Two Digital Magnifier Devices, NICCI, CC TV to two visually impaired persons, Mr. George Cooper and Mrs. Kasturi Priyadharshini to help them in pursuing their studies to qualify for the Banking profession.
PMJF Lion G.M. Balaji Rathnam, Dist. Governor, Dist.324A1, and PMJF Lion Dr. S.S. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya, MJF Lion G.V.Raman Lion Dr. K.S.Lakshmi, PDG .District.. Governors, Dist. 324A1, Lion B.R.Rao, PMC, MD316, Hyderabad, and Lion Dr. K.S. Lakshmi, Past Dist. Governor, MJF Lion SR Muruganandham, MJF Lion K.Jayaraman, Lion H.Raghothaman graced the occasion. MJF Lion S.N. Harinarayanan, Chairman Sight First and Manager –Projects, Sankara Nethralaya coordinated the program and Lion Abirami Rajendran proposed the Vote of Thanks.
Launch of critical children’s eye care initiative marks 70th Independence Day celebrations at Sankara Nethralaya
The ophthalmic institution passionately committed to providing physical and financial independence by bringing back the ‘light of vision’ into the life of the visually impaired especially the indigent, observed the nation’s 70th Independence Day with customary patriotic fervour and launching of a critical eye care initiative to benefit rural children. The day’s proceedings started with a warm welcome to the Chief Guest of the Day, Justice S.Jagadeesan and the distinguished dignitaries from ORBIS the institution’s partner in service for more than 2 decades by Dr.T.S.Surendran, vice-chairman of Sankara Nethralaya. He gave an interesting account of the legal giant’s brilliance in his field and his many achievements and had a high word of praise to the service partner with whom ORBIS Reach the new initiative targeted at screening children in Kanchipuram district was being launched, he underlined that the SN-ORBIS partnership had successfully trained 72 professionals comprising paediatric anaesthetists, nurses and optometrists.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Rahul, Ali, India Country Director, ORBIS gave an insight on its activities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, he recalled the advent of ORBIS in India via the enchanting hospital in the air. He stunned the audience with the startling revelation that a child was going blind in some part of the globe every minute and underlined that it was the primary responsibility of every ophthalmologist to ensure the eye health of children to fulfil their ‘Right to Education’ he had a high word of praise for the Qatar Development Fund, the funding agency of the project being launched, which through the ‘Qatar Creating Vision’ project supported cost free eye camps across the world. He explained that ORBIS-Reach project being launched would not only be involved in correcting refractive errors but pave way for better medical management for children with complications in their vision. The India Country Director, ORBIS finished his interesting talk with a high word of praise for the Sankara Nethralaya-ORBIS team for developing a project on ‘Indian preferred Practice Pattern’ for paediatric ophthalmology and competency based assessment rubrics applied to multiple cadres at Sankara Nethralaya and his dream of a world where no child will go needlessly blind.
Delivering the Chief Guest’s address Chief Justice S.Jagadeesan expressed his anguish that ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberty’ secured at great sacrifice by the freedom fighters and national leaders was being interpreted as being self centred, intolerant and impatient, he added that we have failed to imbibe the qualities of great leaders like Bhagat Singh, Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Kappal ottiya Thamizhan VOC Chidambaranar and Thiruppur Kumaran, he rued that negative factors like population explosion, terrorism and unemployment have also grown along with the nation’s growth in positive areas and fervently appealed to own responsibility as citizens for a better society and better human welfare. The chief guest hailed Sankara Nethralaya for fostering integration among its employees to extend better patient care, hospitality and exemplary coordination to achieve its global position.
The momentous occasion ended with the distribution of meritorious, annual performance awards for employees and departments of Sankara Nethralaya by the Chief Guest.