Sankara Nethralaya News
The American Academy of Optometry confers its Fellowship on Sankara Nethralaya’s Contact Lens Head
We take great pleasure and pride in sharing that Dr. Rajeswari Mahadevan, Head of Contact Lens Department, Sankara Nethralaya and Assistant Professor, Elite School of Optometry has been conferred with a Fellowship by one of the world’s most prestigious seats of optometry training namely the American Academy of Optometry. Dr. Rajeswari participated in the 95th Annual meeting of the glorious institution held at Annaheim, California between the 9th and 12th of November 2016. The meeting witnessed 250 hours of Continuing Education (CE) Courses, Scientific presentations and 150 exhibits and recorded an attendance of more than 7,700 Optometrists, Vision care professionals and Vision Scientists from across the world. The Fellowship which signifies the highest professional standards in optometry was awarded to Dr. Rajeswari on the basis of her extensive written work and oral examination reviewed by leading Vision Scientists and Optometrists, a process cleared by a meagre 10% of aspirants.
A leading seat of knowledge and education recognizes its achievers
The 28th Annual graduation ceremony of the Elite School of Optometry, the CU Shah institute of ophthalmic sciences and the Vidyasagar institute of bio medical science was held on 25th November at the Sri VD Swamy Auditorium. Speaking on the occasion Shanthi Swaroop Bhatnagar awardee, Institute Chair Professsor and Professor of Chemistry at the IIT Dr T.Pradeep gave a simple and absorbing account of various filtering processes that has resulted in the availability of a huge amount of potable water, benefiting 7.5 million people. His talk a mixture of chemistry and poetry enthused the students to learn and practice what they learn. He encouraged the students to create opportunities through innovation as technology can change the world.
The philanthropy of Padmasri Iravatham Mahadevan, founder of VIBS who was chosen for a doctorate by the Tamil University was recalled. The graduating students were cheered with gusto by the audience making it a most memorable day in their life.
‘Technology’ can be the ‘human element’ in Medicare reiterates high power symposium at Sankara Nethralaya!
As an institution with a firm belief that Information Technology and its various manifestations are as vital to dispensing of quality healthcare as clinical expertise and best practices, a fact underlined by the institution being selected twice as the ‘ Best IT user in Healthcare’ by NASSCOM with KPMG and CNBC TV, Sankara Nethralaya took a major initiative in exploring new vistas in the field of IT in healthcare by organizing a symposium titled ‘Transforming Eye Care through Information Technology’ (TIET-2016) at the Sri V.D. Swami Auditorium at its main campus on the 19th of November 2016. The event was in keeping with the institution’s avowed and founding principle of disseminating knowledge for the common good and gave a deep insight and perspective on the role of IT and its scope for the future to healthcare professionals, administrators and IT personnel in healthcare and was well received by a packed hall of attendees. The seminar was addressed by an array of luminaries and high profile professionals from diverse backgrounds like Dr.Sumanth Raman, Domain Consultant Healthcare TCS, Dr.S.B. Bhatacharya, Head Health Informatics and Member National EHR Standardization Committee, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Dr. Ramamurthy, President AIOS, Mr. Ravi Viswanathan, President TCS, Dr. John Picconi from IBM Watson, Dr. Rahul Ali, Country Head, ORBIS, Dr. Vijay Narayanan, Head of Data Science and Director Algorithm, Microsoft Corporation, Dr SS. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya and Dr. Sathya Venkatraman, Consulting Partner, Asia Pacific IBM to name a few.
Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Sankara Nethralaya Shri Chandramouli welcomed the gathering and gave an interesting genesis of his institution’s tryst with technology dating back to two decades and its pioneering role in storage and retrieval of data. Addressing by remote Dr.John Piccone took the audience on an enchanting trip on how his company IBM Watson Health deployed advanced Cognitive computing to enhance human experience and decode unstructured data, interpret natural language and interpret a worldwide database for better diagnosis and understanding of ailments. Dr. Sumanth Raman from TCS reiterated the same with his observation that the role of IT is not any more confined to storage and retrieval of data but as a dynamic, proactive and predicting mechanism taking healthcare from its role of illness management to wellness management. Speaking on the occasion Dr. Sudhir, Senior Consultant and Head of Sankara Nethralaya’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) gave a detailed account of his institution’s real time experience with EMR and how the training, implementation cost and challenges were made worthwhile by the benefits that accrued from the same.
Shi Ravi Viswanthan President, TCS congratulated Dr.Sudhir and his team for their role as pioneers in implementing EMR and hailed TCS and Sankara Nethralaya as partners in progress, he underlined the role of Information Technology in dispensing healthcare in a highly populous nation like India and hailed Dr.SS.Badrinath as a true visionary and EMR as his long term vision. Dr. Vijay Narayanan Head of Algorithm and Data Science at Microsoft gave an interesting account on a rather esoteric and surreal topic titled ‘Unreasonable effects of Algorithm’ and his organization’s interesting engagement in preventive healthcare with L.V.Prasad Eye institute deploying the same.
The first hand experience shared by senior doctors like Dr. Rajiv Raman, Senior Consultant Sankara Nethralaya and several Medico-IT professionals in terms of accurate interpretation of images to helping in case studies drove home the point that Information Technology was not alien or inimical to dispensing healthcare as it is being construed but indispensable to the same and helped in underlining that technology far from replacing the human touch was actively enhancing personalization and the one to one engagement in healthcare delivery. The symposium on IT in healthcare also dwelt on more mundane topics like online payments, cyber safety and the leveraging of the web to engage and reach out the services of a hospital to its users.
World sight day celebrations by Elite School of Optometry, Sankara Nethralaya in association with ORBIS India
World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment, and is held on the second Thursday in October each year. This year it has fallen on the Thursday 13th October.
As the day began this year, hundreds of eye care professionals across the country stood up to the commitment of “Stronger together”, the global theme for this year’s WSD. As the day beautifully dawned, it was a wonderful sight to witness hundreds of Optometry students, and optometrists of the Elite School of Optometry along with the school children rising up to the occasion of the World Sight Day through various eye care awareness activities. Six schools in and around the Kooram village of the Kanchipuram district were involved in the WSD initiatives of the Elite school in partnership with ORBIS India, coordinated by the humanitarian minds Mr. Raman from NGO Dassya and Mr. Anbu from NGO Vizguthugal.
The ’Refractive Error Among Children’ (REACH) Program supported by the Orbis India Country Strategic Plan (CSP) under the umbrella of its India Childhood Blindness Initiative (ICBI) and the South Asia Comprehensive Child Eye Health Initiative (SACCHI) at the regional level, is focused at screening 300,000 children between July 2016 – June 2019 in southern India. Elite School of Optometry & Sankara Nethralaya, Units of Medical Research Foundation, Chennai has partnered up with Orbis in this initiative along with 5 other partner institutions across India. The team lead by ESO carried with them the theme “Eye Health for ALL” as the mission statement for 2016 World Sight Day initiatives. On the 13th October, vision screening activities, human chain of school students and optometrists carrying placards on eye care awareness, and drawing competitions on “VizhiyeNalama” to ignite the young minds on the need for eye and vision care were carried out. 609 children were screened in six schools of whom 4 needed spectacles, 4 referred for colour vision defects, 5 for vision therapy and 5 for other ocular problems.
Elite School of Optometry, a unit of Medical Research of Foundation, has established a strong school children outreach model and has covered more than 200,000 children in the last 5 years. Every year, on occasion of the world sight day, innovative ideas on eye and vision care awareness have been implemented by the team to reach out to the general public at large, and this year as well the team stands socially committed to the cause of “Eye health for all”. The ongoingplans for this year’s WSD include a spectrum of eye and vision care awareness activities involving primary, middle and higher secondary school students in and around the Kanchipuram district with plethora of themes addressing every age. The activities that are carried out under the theme include drawing competition on “VizhiyeNalama” (on eye health), slogan writing competition on ” Spectacles – our stylish choice” to drive the need for compliant spectacle wear, Vision club inauguration at selected schools, Installation of plaques that read “ Free from vision impairment” on the premises of 6 schools that have been screened by the team, Vision ambassador training for the school students, Quiz competitions, vision screening activities, listening to eye care stories, interacting with eye and vision care experts, Human chain and walk around the school premise in the village locality and many more!
The celebrations have begun on the13thOctober, and will be continued till the third week of October. The results of the competition would be announced during last week of October along with distribution of winner trophy and prizes.
Through the initiative of REACH and the World Sight day this year, the commitment of Elite school of Optometry and Sankara Nethralaya to serve the underserved children of rural southern India is taking a giant leap and serves as an exemplary example to the social accountability initiatives of this pioneering institution.
Let us all raise up to the cause of this unique initiatives of Elite School of Optometry, Sankara Nethralaya and ORBIS, India by spreading the message on “Eye health for all” and “Stronger Together” build a nation free from vision impairment.
For volunteering activities, please contact Elite School of Optometry 044-22316658.
Fellows from Sankara Nethralaya’s Orbit and Oculoplasty department exhibit high levels of subject matter expertise and understanding at key national meet on the niche specialty
The Oculoplasty Association of India (OPAI) the umbrella organization representing and administering the field of Oculoplasty in the country, conducted its 27th Annual Conference at Baroda on the 4th of October 2016.The event witnessed the active participation of students and senior professionals in the field from all over the nation.
We take great pride and pleasure in sharing that an insightful illustration by Dr. Vathsalya Vijay titled “Prostaglandin Associated Periobitopathy: The Orbital Angle” won the ‘Dr.C.Gupta Award’ for the ‘Best Poster’ and a well researched presentation titled ‘Orbital Abscess- A 15 year review at a tertiary eye care centre’ by Dr.Varsha Backiavathy won the ‘Dr.M.Subramanyam Award’ for the ‘Best Paper’ at the prestigious event. Dr.Varsha Backiavathy also exhibited a quick grasp of the subject with her speedy responses and won the 1st prize in the quiz contest titled ‘Plasty Pariksha’.
Let us join in expressing our Hearty Congrats!! to the winners and wish them many more recognitions and accolades in their professional journey!
A revolutionary finding on myopia wins high recognition from prestigious University
It was a proud moment for the entire Optometry community, when Dr. Viswanathan S. HOD, Optometry and Optical services, Sankara Nethralaya successfully defended his thesis on “Near work induced transient myopia (NITM) among Indian subjects” before a panel of expert reviewers at the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. This collaborative work between Anglia Ruskin University and the Elite school of Optometry, Sankara Nethralaya was carried out at the Srimathi Sundari Subramanian Department of Visual psychophysics, where patients from Sankara Nethralaya suffering from myopia were subjected to detailed assessment and relevant clinical evaluation. Dr. Peter Allen, Professor of Optometry and Vision Science at Anglia Ruskin University and Dr. Krishna Kumar R, Principal ESO served as the supervisors for this research work.
The key findings of his research suggest that Indian myopic eyes have a swifter response in relaxing, which is faster than the time taken for relaxing of myopic eyes among other ethnicities, according to existing data. This phenomenon is argued as one of the possible mechanisms protecting the Indian eye from the Myopia epidemic that is spreading across the globe. This unique research finding of Dr.Viswanathan has been awarded a PhD degree and he is the second ESO graduate to be awarded with a PhD under the aegis of the Anglia Ruskin University. His study has also opened up avenues for collaborative initiatives between the two countries. Dr. Viswanathan’s research has been well received and recognized.
Join us in extending your hearty Congratulations to Dr.Viswanathan!
The pioneer and veteran in paediatric ophthalmology and his team release yet another great work
Dr TS.Surendran, Head Pediatric Ophthlmology and his team released “Preferred Practices in Pediatric Ophthalmology” a well researched and exhaustive work on this niche area of ophthalmology.
The Dr S Ramakrishnan & Smt. Bhagavathy Endowement Award was awarded to Ms. A. Rashima, Lecturer, ESO for her research paper “Impact of Occupational Optometry Services on the productivity and vision of Small Scale and Cottage Industry workers”.
The Dr S. Narasimhan Memorial Award for the Best Research in Optometry for year 2015 – 2016 was awarded to Ms N Anuradha, Lecturer, Elite School of Optometry for her work on “Compliance to Referral among Children in School Eye Screening- A Qualitative study from Southern India”. Ms. Anuradha also won the Dr (Maj) S. Srinivasan Memorial Prize for Best Senior Faculty.
Dr. (Maj) S. Srinivasan Memorial Prize for Best Junior Faculty Award for year 2015-16 was awarded to Ms. A. Vijayalakshmi, Manager – Optometry Department, Sankara Nethralaya and visiting Lecturer at ESO.
Ground breaking research findings of Senior Consultant from the Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya create major impact at prestigious meet of Retina Specialists of Europe
An in-depth study, observation and interpretation of foveal bulge thickness as an effective prognostic marker in ascertaining Macular Edema, presented by Dr.Kumar Saurabh, Senior Consultant, Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya, Kolkata won rave reviews at the 16th EURETINA, the highly prestigious annual meet of the European Society of Retina Specialists, held on the 14th of September at Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. His finding and reviews of the same by senior retina specialists was prominently covered by Retinal PHYSICIAN and Medscape Medical News, two highly prestigious medical journals of Europe.
We take pleasure in sharing the links of the detailed report below
Click here for the detailed news report of Dr.Kumar Saurabh’s finding
Sankara Nethralaya team makes a mark at CME on Ocular Imaging
Radhatri Nethralaya the well known Chennai based eye hospital observed its 8th anniversary celebrations with a Continuing Medical Education (CME) program titled “Ocular Imaging” at the Southern Crown, GRT Hotel Chennai, on 11th September 2016. A quiz contest was conducted on the occasion by Dr.Vasumathy Vedantham, Medical Director of the institution.
We take pleasure in sharing the news that the Sankara Nethralaya team of Dr. Gondhale Harshal Pradeep, Vitreo Retinal Fellow, Dr. Pranoti Nagevekar pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Ophthalmology and Dr. More Pritesh Sakharam pursuing his Post graduation in Diplomate of National Board won the ‘Runner Up’ prize. Sankara Nethralaya family congrats the team on their achievement and wishes them many more laurels and accolades.
Sankara Nethralaya retains its No-1 status in the world of ophthalmology
The ICICI-Lombard CNBC-TV-18 ‘India Healthcare awards’ is among the most stringent quality/service evaluation parameters in the industry, healthcare providers from across the world are evaluated on diverse parameters by a most experienced and distinguished jury in addition to an evaluation of quality, based on real time user experience through the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) the nation’s premium research body.
We take great pride and pleasure in declaring that Sankara Nethralaya has been adjudged as the ‘Best Single Specialty Hospital (Ophthalmology)’ for the year 2015-16. It is noteworthy to mention here that this coveted distinction is being conferred on the institution for the 3rd time since the award was incepted 5 years ago, which is a rare feat. The award was given away by the Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Davendra Fadnavis and received on behalf of the institution by Dr. Pramod S.Bhende, Director Medical Affairs, Sankara Nethralaya, at a well attended ceremony held at Mumbai recently.
This is a proud feather in the cap of each and every employee of Sankara Nethralaya and a call to scale new heights in its journey of service to mankind.