19th DR E VAITHILINGAM MEMORIAL SCIENTIFIC SESSION

 In memory of the late Principal Dr. E. Vaithilingam, Elite School of Optometry (ESO) initiated a national scientific session in 2002 to encourage optometrists and optometry students from all over India to present their research work. This year, the 19th Dr EV Memorial Session was conducted as an online session between March 25^th and 28^th, 2021. The session focused on the theme “Celebrating Optometry. Optometrists, postgraduate optometry students and fellows of optometry from 47  institutions attended the session. The events were live streamed in YouTube and Facebook. The four days session had almost 2000 views in the YouTube alone.

The inaugural session started with welcome address by Dr. Anuradha, Principal, Elite school of Optometry. Dr T S Surendran, Vice- Chairman, MRF shared his fond memories about Dr EV. Dr. Girish S Rao, President, Medical Research Foundation gave a special address.  Dr Rashima, Scientific Committee shared the overview of the sessions. Dr Premnandhini, and Dr Shrikant Bharadwaj, LVPEI and alumni of ESO shared their thoughts about Dr E Vaithlingam. Scientific sessions started with a guest lecture on “National Education Policy and changes required in optometric education” which was delivered by Dr. Krishna Kumar, former Principal, ESO. The key note lecture was given by Ms. Jude Stern, Head of Knowledge Management, International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) & Ms. Jissa James Knowledge Manager, IAPB on “Role of Optometrists in delivering World Report on Vision”. The session also featured key optometric focus areas on “Allied Health care professions bill and readiness of optometric education and practice” by Ms Lakshmi Shinde, CEO, Optometry Council of India, “Role of Community optometrist in Glaucoma management” by Dr Subash Sukumar, Glaucoma consultant, Manchester eye hospital, UK and “Roles of Optometrists in managing concussions” by Dr Aparna Raghuram, Boston Children eye hospital and Asst. Professor, Harvard Medical College. An exclusive workshop on “Developing and Evaluating an International Virtual Grand Round” was conducted in collaboration with ESO-SN and Deakin University, Australia by Prof James Armitage, Ms Amanda Edgar, Dr N Anuradha, Dr Viswanathan and Mr Praveen Kumar. The research journey of ESO was compiled and presented as a video by the organizing team and the post graduate students

This year’s scientific session witnessed 17 oral presentations and 54 e posters that were selected from the 300 plus submissions. There were almost 700 comments received for the e-posters that were compiled and shared with the participants. Feedback for better scientific submissions were shared by the internal and seven external judges. This was immediately shared to the participants as a video. There were contests on 4 key areas of optometric practice, education, community rotations, clinical practice and research. There were around 150 submissions to the contests.  The details about the winners of the scientific session are shared below. The organizing and scientific committee of the EVM share their heartfelt gratitude to the participants and the well-wishers for their overwhelming support.

Great works start with a small beginning. This scientific journey of ESO as the Dr E V Memorial Scientific Sessions will remain and grow as a platform for scientific deliberations with the blessings of Mahaperiyava.

Details of winners of the 19^th Dr E Vaithilingam Memorial Scientific Session: