October 2020
Dr. Rizwana Becomes President of The Optometric Association of Tamil Nanbargal (OATN)
The Optometric Association of Tamil Nanbargal (OATN) has unanimously nominated and chosen Dr. Jameel Rizwana Hussaindeen (Head, Binocular Vision clinic, Sankara Nethralaya) as the upcoming President for the next tenure.
The OATN, established in 2011, aims to strive for the recognition and regulation of the Optometry profession & education. It has been established as the legal association for Tamil Nadu Optometry since 2012. The association has 500+ members and counting, including life members and student members, from across Tamil Nadu. OATN has served as a great source of support to the Optometry community through dissemination of knowledge, and hands-on training through conferences, seminars, and workshops. The association also volunteers to support NGOs to provide eye and vision care to the needy, deserving, and for individuals with vision impairment. The association conducts strong lobbying to facilitate the passing of the AHP bill that would immensely benefit the Optometry community.
OATN also provides support to young graduates and job seekers through its massive networking channels. The legacy of this association was greatly supported by its Founding President Mr. Singaravelu, who was then followed by Mrs. Poongothai and now Dr. Jameel Rizwana Hussaindeen, Sankara Nethralaya will step into this illustrious position.
The Sankara Nethralaya family congratulates Dr. Rizwana wishing her and the association to reach greater heights under her leadership.
Kurai Ondrum Illai Humble Tribute to Sankara Nethralaya’s Frontline Warriors
48 talented vocalists and instrumentalists gave a soulful rendition of Kurai Ondrum Illai song as a tribute to our frontline heroes of Sankara Nethralaya Chennai team.
‘Kurai Ondrum Illai’ is one of the famous Tamil devotional songs, which was tuned by Shri Kadayanallur Venkatraman, who was a close associate of Shri Semmangudi. Governor General of India Sri C. Rajagopalachari has weaved those beautiful words into an amazing song and popularized by Bharat Ratna M. S. Subbulakshmi amma who has made this lively song divine and immortal with her soulful voice. The song is an expression of thankfulness to the divine without any wants left unfulfilled.
To mention the raagams, the whole song is not based on just one raagam but is a Raagamalika. The pallavi and anupallavi are sung in Shivaranjani while the charanam is rendered in Shivaranjani, Kapi and Sindubhairavi.
All the 48 artists are carefully selected and this project was started in July and completed on Sep 7, 2020. The concept, execution and the direction is by Sowmiya Narayanan, Kamalakiran Vinjamuri and Somanath Dhandibotla. The video, audio, editing, mastering and mixing were done by Somanath Dhandibotla. All the participants are from various states in US.
Many prominent figures from the world of Carnatic classical music gave positive reviews and this Youtube video is getting lot of positive acclamations.
Kalaimamani Sri Unnikrishnan appreciated the efforts of youngsters for arranging a precise orchestration. “Must have been quite a task. Everybody has sung and played very well. In unison. Convey my Best wishes to the entire team,” he said.
Sangita Kalanidhi Padma Bhushan Smt. Sudha Raghunathan gave her appreciation and observed, “Wonderful effort ji! Joara paadi vaasitchirka!”
Please watch this rendition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdmK49Iyhc
Sangita Kalanidhi Padmasri Vidushi Kanyakumari’s Violin Concert for Indigent Patients
Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust USA organized a live stream event by Sangita Kalanidhi Padmasri Vidushi Kanyakumari -Violin on Sunday, 11th October 2020 at 5:30 PM (EST)| Monday, 12th October, 2020 at 3: AM (IST). Sangita Kalanidhi Kanyakumari was accompanied by Vidhwan Dr. Patri Satish Kumar on the Mridangam, Vidhwan Anirudh Athreya on the Khanjira, and Vidhwan Sayee Rakshith on Violin support.
Patrons immersed themselves in Vidushi Kanyakumari’s concert from comfort of their homes. SN OM Trust USA was forced to cancel in person-events in Atlanta GA, Dallas TX, Washington DC, Houston TX, Los Angeles CA, and Pittsburgh PA due to present COVID 19 pandemic conditions and SN OM trust trustees organized online charity concerts to raise funds for bringing sight to poor indigent patients.
SN OM Trust Inc. USA., is Sankara Nethralaya’s only fund-raising arm in the USA. We invite you to visit https://www.sankaranethralayausa.org/ to learn more about donating from the USA.
We sincerely thank our supporters Mana TV, TV Asia, Sakshi TV, TV5, TV9, US 1 Television, and Radio TORi for their tireless efforts in telecasting this Classical concert.
Watch Sangita Kalanidhi Padmasri Vidushi Kanyakumari’s performance here at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3333933226832359
Walk for Vision with SN Family and Lions Club!
World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. Dr. Veena Bhaskaran of Sankara Nethralaya backed by Lions Club International, organized a World Sight Day 2020 walkathon on Sunday, 11th October, 2020.
The Charity walkathon “Walk for Vision” aims to create awareness about preventable blindness. Participants went on a 5 km walk/cycle/run in the comfort of their home environments as per their fitness. Participants get an e-certificate and their selfies published on our social media wall on registration. Send us your selfies at walkforvision@snmail.org by 18th October, 2020 and your photo too will go up on our wall!
The Charity walkathon was met with enthusiastic participation from Sankara Nethralaya’s ophthalmologists, students, and the general public. More than 160 participants walked, ran, and cycled to help spread awareness of “Hope In Sight”, which is this year’s clarion call.
Among those who supported our “Hope for Vision” walkathon were Dr. Girish Shiva Rao, Dr. Geetha Iyer, Dr. L. Vijaya, Dr. R. Sujatha, Dr. Lingam Gopal, Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas, Dr. Jeyalakshmi Govindan, Dr. Elizabeth Sonu John, and Dr. Veena Bhaskaran. Many of our staff, a SWAN volunteer, and patients also participated in the walkathon on Sunday.
Once again, our long-time champion – Lions Club of Central Madras, District 324 A1 supported Sankara Nethralaya’s 4 decade long crusade against preventable blindness & organized a “Walk for Vision” walkathon at Natesan Park, T. Nagar.
Lion members led by President Ln Dr. T Elangovan, walked around the park in small groups following all the COVID-19 protocols and distributed pamphlets to the general public to create awareness about Diabetic Retinopathy.
President Ln Dr T Elangovan addressed morning walkers regarding the ill- effects of uncontrolled diabetes, which can result in Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). People living with diabetes should visit their Ophthalmologist at least once a year for a comprehensive Eye Examination.
Walkers present during the address thanked the club members for talking about this significant complication of Diabetes.
Sankara Nethralaya thanks our staff, patients, Lions Club team and everyone who participated in the Walkathon and spreading the message about Universal Eye Health.
Elite School of Optometry World sight day 2020
World sight day is the most important advocacy day in the eye health calendar and it’s held annually on second Thursday of October. This year World sight day is on 8th October 2020. Sankara Nethralaya along with Elite School of Optometry (ESO) always contributes to the society and as a part of this year’s world sight day and promoting the theme -“Hope in Sight” students of ESO have organized several activities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, implementing the community activities is found difficult and it involves many safety precautions. Keeping in mind the current situation and in order to promote the eye care awareness, various activities are planned and the details are given below.
Activity 1
“Hope is Sight- Displaying the solidarity of the professionals”
A placard displaying the theme ‘Hope in sight’ was made and a video collage of optometrists and optometry students holding it was made displaying the solidarity of the professionals.
Activity 2
E-posters-awareness through Social Media
Innovative E-Posters creating awareness on compelling eye health safety and consequential eye donation were designed. The posters surfaced the doubts of many common people on eye donation, myopia and eye care and digital eye strain and suitable exercises. We also received accolades for the attractive and informative posters from many optometrists in various institutions. These posters were shared in social media platforms.
Activity 3
Online awareness sessions with young minds
Eye care awareness session were conducted for the students of Omega international school, Gerugambakkam. The session was organized by the school and Dr. Anuradha ESO principal delivered key points on the burden of refractive error, importance of spectacles, common ocular problems, binocular vision problems and symptoms, color vision anomalies and she also shared the common symptoms of digital eye strain which is a raising problem especially in COVID 19 situation. 55 students from 8th and 9th grade along with staff members attended the session and doubts from the students were clarified at the end.
Activity 4
Promoting eye care through stake holders -Awareness and Vision ambassador training
Sukriti social foundation is a Non –governmental organization (NGO) which works for social welfare development especially for government school students and teachers. As a part of world sight day initiative, Dr. Anuradha, ESO principal promoted awareness on burden of visual impairment and importance of compliance to spectacles among school students through online session. Almost 75 people attended the session including government teachers, Sukriti staff members and volunteers. Vision ambassador training on basic vision screening with ESO’s PVS chart (Pocket Vision screener) was also taught to them and formats for documenting the vision, finding out obvious eye problems were also shared.
Elite School of Optometry 35 years of excellence
Elite School of Optometry fondly called as ESO, is India’s first college offering a four year professional degree in optometry. This institution has been run by Sankara Nethralaya, a tertiary eye care center in collaboration with SASTRA deemed university since 2017. The college is best known for its intense clinical training to the students along with a superior foundation in optometry education and research. Students of ESO are also educated on social accountability and responsibility. Adding a gem to its crown, the institution holds records in serving the community through various community activities.
ESO was established on the 18th of September 1985 by Dr. S S Badrinath, Prof. S R Govindarajan and Prof. Jay M Enoch and completes its 35 years of excellence in 2020.
To celebrate this landmark event, the graduate optometry students and team of ESO planned a virtual event with the objective of bringing all alumni to reminisce their days at ESO and also keep the current students updated about the legend of ESO. The celebration was held on 30th of September and 1st of October 2020 between 10.00 and 17.00 IST.
Dr N Anuradha, the Principal of ESO welcomed the august audience. Dr. Girish Shiv Rao, President- Medical Research Foundation and Dr. T S Surendran, Vice- Chairman- Medical Research Foundation addressed the students and alumni. Drs P P Santanam, R Krishna Kumar, Sumathi Narayanan, S Meenakshi, Prof. Seshasayee, Prof. Pichaimuthu and other faculty of ESO shared their fond memories with ESO. As the alumni are from different time zones from across the world different times were allotted on two days and every alumni were excited to be a part of the grand event. They shared their current position, their journey in the field over the years and fun moments from their college days.
There were 365 alumni and students who participated in the virtual celebration via Google Meet. There were representatives of alumni from the first till the last batch. The present students were thoroughly motivated from hearing the success stories of their seniors. The event was highly appreciated by all and recommended to have such an event yearly as ‘ESO day’.
Head of the academic institution of Optometry contributes to implementation of the ‘World Report on Vision’ through the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness
India Vision Institute conducted a virtual conference between 2nd and 4th October, 2020 on the
theme ‘Eye Health in the changing world’. This was a virtual conference with delegates from across
the globe. The International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) that is instrumental in
ensuring eye and vision across countries had conducted a panel discussion in the conference on the
“Role of Optometry in delivering World Report on Vision” Ms Jude Stern, Head of Knowledge
IAPB invited Dr N Anuradha, Principal, Elite School of Optometry, India to be a part of the panel to
share her expertise on implementing World Report on Vision(WRV) through targeted initiatives from
optometry with respect to India.
The session held on 3rd October is a crucial initiative globally aligning with the two major themes of
the WRV on refractive errors and cataract and hence witnessed a great response from the
participants of the conference.
The session was moderated by Mr Yuddha Sapkota, Regional Coordinator, International Agency for
Prevention of Blindness and the panelists included Ms Jude Stern, Head of Knowledge IAPB, Dr
Daniel Ting, Singapore Eye Research Institute, Dr Andreas Mueller, Advisor to the World Health
Organization along with Dr Anuradha Narayanan, Principal, Elite School of Optometry, India
Session discussion was on two key themes namely Integration and Advocacy. Details included
opinions on integration of eye care into health care, importance of integration of Optometry care in
this changing world in terms of service coverage and technology and how optometry is integrated
into eye care services in different countries. Ms Jude also shared about IAPB Vision Atlas and IAPB
advocacy documents that would be shortly released. Dr Andreas briefed on how national optometry
organization work with local or regional WHO to advocate for an implement WHO recommendations.
He gave details on e-modules on cataract and refractive errors released by WHO.
Dr Anuradha shared specifics about the India context in terms of integrating optometry
within broader health services and the ways optometry, ophthalmology and other eye care providers
work together in the eye care system. She also shared about the challenges and lesson learned in
advocating Optometry in the context of India and the role of World Report on Vision focus on
integrating optometry. This is the first time an optometry expert from the institution is invited by the
IAPB on advocacy of eye and vision care.
Sankara Nethralaya Eye Care Professionals Receive Accolades in International Conference
‘Eye health in a changing world’, an international virtual conference and trade fair was conducted by the India Vision Institute (IVI) between the 2nd and 4th October 2020. It covered a wide array of areas in Optometry and Vision science. The main agenda of the conference was to explore the future of eye care and eye health, especially after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic globally.
Dr. Rizwana- HOD, Binocular vision/ Vision therapy clinic; Assistant Professor- Elite School of Optometry; and Research Coordinator – Srimathi Sundari Subramanian Department of Visual Psychophysics, Sankara Nethralaya – represented the scientific committee of the conference involving in planning and reviewing abstracts, and also served as a panel member for the Public health – children section. Sankara Nethralaya was represented by 18 eye care professionals including optometrists and graduate optometry students. They submitted abstracts and presented them in the conference.
Team Sankara Nethralaya gave a rocking performance at the conference and won laurels. Ms. Mehal Rathore, Ms. Aparna G, and Ms. Alisha Regmi won the award for best paper presentation in the oral category in ocular diagnostics, paediatric optometry, and binocular vision and public health respectively. Ms. Jannet Philip won the award for best case report in the oral category.
The conference included discussions on recent developments, innovations, practice trends, and way forward in eye care for community, clinic, and private practice services. It hosted participants from 37 countries around the world. There were 1,330 registered delegates comprising eye care professionals and students. The plenary and parallel sessions saw 199 speakers.
Report on ‘Eye Health in a Changing World’ -Virtual International Conference… Read more.