May 2019
Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya Consultant’s Paper on the surgical management of complex ophthalmic disorder wins high honours at prestigious meet
The 70th Annual Conference of the Delhi Ophthalmological Society (DOSCON) was held at New Delhi between 12- 14 of May 2019, it was a great honour for the Sankara Nethralaya when a white paper on the surgical management of a complex ophthalmic condition authored by Dr Aditi Ghosh Dastider serving at the Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya won high honours at this most prestigious meet organized on the theme ‘Cutting edge technology,’ with a focus on showcasing the latest technology and ophthalmic processes from the world over and featuring the best works in the fields of Cataract, Refractive Surgery, Cornea, Glaucoma, Strabismus, Neuro-ophthamology and Occuloplasty attended by a large number of ophthalmologists from all over India.
The white paper titled “Bulbar Oculosporidiosis with Staphyloma and its Surgical Management :Case Series” presented by Dr Aditi Ghosh Dastider, Consultant at the Cornea Department, Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya, Kolkata was adjudged as the ‘Best Paper in Cornea and Ocular Surface’ at this most prestigious meet.
The Sankara Nethralaya family expresses its hearty congratulations and rich compliments to Dr Aditi Ghosh Dastider for emerging as the winner in a highly prestigious meet and wishes her many more accolades and awards in her professional journey.
The pioneer in ‘Myopia’ care takes a far sighted view of the malady emerging in threatening proportions
As an institution which has several water shed initiatives in better understanding, controlling and preventing ‘Myopia’ like starting an exclusive ‘Myopia Control Clinic’, the role played in the launch of ‘Myopin’ an effective drug against the ailment in the country and the pride of its head of optometry and optical services being conferred with a PhD by the Anglia Ruskin University, UK for his in-depth findings on ‘Myopia’, the optometrists and Ophthalmologists of the ‘Myopia Control Clinic’ at Sankara Nethralaya’s main campus rose gloriously to the occasion of ‘Myopia Awareness Week’ being declared by the ‘ World Council of Optometry’ as the period between 13th – 19th May 2019.
Long time crusader against Myopia and champion of the Myopia Control Clinic at the institution, Dr Rizwana Hussaindeen summed up the purpose of the event succinctly as 1. To educate and create awareness on an ailment which is a lifelong financial burden which one has to bear on changing one’s spectacles periodically 2. The negative effect that wearing of glasses can have on one’s lifestyle and most importantly 3. The loss of vision that uncontrolled Myopia can lead to. The Assistant Professor at the Elite School of Optometry with an enduring interest in children’s eye health and an active player in the institution’s school screening camps shared alarming statistics on the impact of the ailment according to which ½ of the world is likely to become Myopic by year 2050, with close to a billion being in the category of ‘Highly Myopic’, she cited Japan, China and South East Asian nations as showing signs of this threatening epidemic with a majority of their citizens being bespectacled at a very early age, she quickly reassured that in comparison India was in a safer position but still cannot afford to treat the threat mildly and take steps on a war footing. Dr Rizwana underlined that myopia was not a simple open and shut problem which could be addressed by simply wearing a pair of glasses that the optometrist prescribes but an ailment which calls for a more serious approach.
It was day of extraordinary edutainment, the interns from the ESO and optometrists from the Myopia Control Clinic spread the word on the topic of the day through a series of fun games and brain teasers, brilliantly conceptualized by Ms. Aparna, Chief Optometrist, Myopia Control clinic, currently working on her doctoral thesis on the challenge of better understanding the risk factors contributing to Myopia progression. Ms Aparna combined her subject matter expertise on Myopia and remarkable creative skills to mentor the interns of the Elite school of Optometry and the Optometrists of the Myopia clinic (Ms. Anusha, Mr. Sourabh, Ms. Sangita Das and Ms. Aishwarya) who rose to the occasion with extraordinary skills and creativity which reflected through Myopia book marks, Fun memes and Skit show.
Senior Consultant, Paediatric Ophthalmology Department and Director Academics, Dr Meenakshi Swaminathan, an expert and veteran in the field blended her talk on Myopia with the spirit of the day with a racy, humour laced and interactive session that opened the eyes of the audience to the common follies they have ignored. The senior consultant whose services have been sought by ORBIS to train paediatric ophthalmologists in China in ensuring children’s eye health shared a lot of food for thought and simple but far reaching solutions to the ailment which largely affects children. Dr Meenakshi Swaminathan strongly underlined that the best route to good physical and mental health of children would be for them to get outdoors and play under the Sun, as natural light reduces the onset of Myopia, she urged parents to ensure that their child’s ‘screen time’ was limited to optimum levels and suggested that this time could be made less harmful on the child’s eye if the images/content received on the hand held phone or laptop could be beamed on to the big screen of the TV at home which the child could see and decipher from a healthy distance, instead of holding the screen of the device close to the eyes and straining it continously. The senior ophthalmologists cautioned that ‘Myopia’ is not a light thing as it is perceived to be and if left unchecked could lead to retinal lesions/detachment.
It was an evening of fun and entertainment with a message, talks by veterans in the field of ophthalmology and optometry coupled with distribution of awareness materials and WHO’s technology guidelines released on the occasion providing a lot of take home messages on Myopia.
The Champions of Light and Vision get a hands on feel of darkness and despair!
There is a popular adage in the Tamil language that only when one goes out into the sweltering heat of the hot sun does one realize the pleasure of the cool shade and shelter, it was an extension of this adage when the US gave its classic tribute to the man who leveraged the power of electricity to light up the world. The President of the USA appealed to every citizen to pay his/her last tribute to Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the electric bulb when he died in year 1931, not by brightening up the nation by flooding every nook and corner with ‘Light’ through the electric bulb which he invented, as one may have anticipated, what the President emphatically appealed was just the opposite, he requested that every bulb in the homes, streets and offices, commercial establishments be switched off! and the nation be plunged into absolute darkness for two full minutes to remind/demonstrate to the people how the world looked before the discovery of the electric bulb! by the great inventor
Students of the Sankara Nethralaya Academy the academic arm of Sankara Nethralaya the pioneer and champion in dispelling darkness and reviving the joy of vision took part in a novel exercise of experiencing what vision impairment and the despair of darkness in real time by depriving themselves of sight, just as the US President had deprived light to his people many years ago. The novel experiment was conceptualized by Dr Anuja Singh, Vice Principal, TSNA, planned Ms Sarika- Head, Low Vision Clinic and executed by Ms RS.Saranya Head, Vision Enhancement Clinic with amazing support from Mr Srinivas, a trained in independent mobility skills undergoing intensive training in ‘assistive software’ at the Vision Enhancement Clinic, as part of ‘World Optometry Day’ celebrations. To quote the words of Ms Saranya, the idea was to empathize with the visually impaired and understand the pain of blindness and the uncertainties and fear that the visually impaired faced every minute by literally getting into their shoes, by experiencing what ‘not seeing’ is all about.
The setting for the experiment was seemingly very simple, a group of students had to simply stroll a couple of yards to a make shift tea shop, take their seats and help themselves to a sip of water and some tea which they had to pour into their glasses from different jugs, a strip of cloth over their eyes keeping the light out and making them blindfolded momentarily underlined the power of ‘Vision’ and ‘light’ to the champions of vision and viewers alike in a manner nothing else could have. It was an eye opening spectacle as the participants walked with unsure steps, clinging to each other’s hands for security and an all pervading fear of the unknown, tripping against obstacles as they made their way to the wayside cafe, a distance which took an inordinately longer time to cover than it would normally do. Coffee the caffeine drink is supposed to brighten the drowsy and make them bright but this ‘Blind ‘coffee in the dark’ party’ was a different affair with the guests fumbling for the water jugs, tumblers and coffee mugs and spilling generous quantities of the fluids on themselves, their friends partying with them and the table cloth.
The ‘coffee in the dark’ party’ had some surprise lessons too, participants realized after a while that their other faculties became sharper and rose to the occasion when their main partner was missing in action and students could gauge the environment better with the surrounding sounds and smells but what came as a big surprise to them after the exercise was when they learnt that the man who held them and guided them from tripping and falling was himself a vision challenged person from the Vision Enhancement Clinic. The observations and feedback by Ms Sarika and the participants came as a great learning and strengthened the resolve to serve the visually impaired even more. The eventful evening came to an end with a warm vote of thanks to the students, organizing faculty and spectators for their presence and participation, by Dr Anuja Singh the person behind the drama with a strong lesson.
The taste of the coffee in terms of the lessons learnt would linger in the minds of the organizers, participants and viewers for a long time to come, which was its very objective.