Raising Awareness during World Retinoblastoma Week
World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week was observed by the Retinoblastoma team at Sankara Nethralaya between May 8th and May 14th 2022. From arranging a press meet to setting up a white board at the entrance to the MAHYCO block for the young retinoblastoma survivors to place their hand – stamps. The Retinoblastoma team poured their hearts and souls into highlighting this curable childhood cancer, its prevention, and cure, and to spread awareness about this disease to the general public. Over 150 children with childhood eye cancers are treated by Sankara Nethralaya each year – one of the highest treatment rates in the world. This institution is also one of the few eye care facilities in India to specialise in childhood eye cancer (Retinoblastoma). Sankara Nethralaya offers cost-free treatment to the children from disadvantaged backgrounds and does not discriminate on the treatment.
Dr Charanya C, Associate Consultant, Viteoretinal services gave a short introduction, titled “Retinoblastoma – an eye opener,” focusing on the fact that fighting Retinoblastoma in children is a team effort. She explained that familial or heredity contributed to several cases, in which instance, the disease can even be prevented in the womb.
The press meet included a panel of doctors who are involved in treating children with childhood eye cancer, alongside Sankara Nethralaya’s well-experienced retinoblastoma specialists to field the questions from the press. The panel included Dr Veena Noronha, Senior Radiologist; V. R. R Scans; Dr. K. Satish Srinivas and Dr. Christopher John, Radiation Oncology, Ramachandra Medical Centre, Dr Pritam Chatterjee, and Dr. (Prof) S. Krishna Kumar, Chief Scientist, Laboratory Services – Histo Pathology Lab, among others. Dr. Lingam Gopal, Distinguished Senior Consultant and Dr. G. Suganeswari, Senior Consultant, Department of Vitreo Retinal Services were present to moderate and field questions from the press.
The panel of doctors stressed the fact that this disease was not just managed by a single ocular oncologist but many people such as a paediatrician, paediatric oncologist, an anaesthetist, a radiologist, an intervention radiologist. The priority for the Retinoblastoma team at Sankara Nethralaya is to first try and save the life of the children, the second priority is to save the eye and thirdly, save the vision, if possible.
Dr. G. Suganeswari, Senior Consultant, Vitreoretina and Oncology Services, said, “Retinoblastoma is a curable childhood cancer and it is a very common cancer in the childhood period. In India, every year, 2000 children are born with the disease, which means one in eighteen thousand children are born with a retinoblastoma and these children belong to the lower social economic strata.”
The parents find it difficult to afford the expensive and prolonged treatment. The Retinoblastoma team helps these children with the most advanced treatment for different stages of retinoblastoma, from intraocular tumours, to tumours which have already spread away from the eye (extraocular tumours), and tumours which have already spread to the organs- distant metastasis.
A few of the patients and their guardians were also present to tell their stories and contribute towards raising awareness about the disease. Two of the patients had familial retinoblastoma, while the cause of the disease was unknown (sporadic) for one patient. The families of the child survivors were very appreciative of the chance to speak about this disease and how their children were lucky to be treated cost-free as even the middle class families cannot afford the cost of lengthy treatments.
Dr. G. Suganeswari reiterated that the patients she had treated were all bright and had great futures – with the support of their families these cancer survivors could go on to achieve greater things. She also cautioned everyone present that the survivors of childhood eye cancer had to come back for regular follow-ups as they had a chance of developing other cancers later in life.
Sankara Nethralaya is one of the few hospitals where the chemotherapy is an in-house facility to make it easier for the patients to get all treatments under one single roof. Housing a chemotherapy ward involves a lot of commitment from many people and requires collaboration with other fraternity hospitals to manage the child patients.
The gathering was reassured that there were many NGOs and charities who are coming forward to help these child patients get cost-free life and vision saving treatment. The press meet closed on a positive note with the doctors assuring everyone that it was possible to save the life of every child, if timely treatment was given.
Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA) honours Dr. Jaichandran V. V.
On the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee Celebration of the Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA), held at Chennai on 14-05-2022, ISA National President Dr. Venkatgiri K.M., Vice-President Dr. Anjali Rakesh Bhure, Secretary Dr. Naveen Malthora, and other office bearers honoured our anaesthesiologist Dr. Jaichandran V. V. for his contributions in the field of Ophthalmic Anaesthesia.
Sankara Nethralaya family congratulates Dr. Jaichandran V. V. on this momentous occasion and thanks him for his dedication and enthusiastic contributions.
Dr. TSS receives Charaka Award in recognition of his dedication to Pediatric Opthalmology
Dr. T. S. Surendran received the Charaka Award conferred on him by the Rotary Club of Guindy acknowledging his long years of dedicated service in the field of pediatric ophthalmology. Our beloved Chief, Dr. S. S. Badrinath, conveyed his blessings to Dr. T. S. Surendran on this memorable occasion.
The awards ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency, Teynampet, on 11th May 2022.
‘Sankara Nethralaya’s first PhD degree recipient in the area of Low vision care’ Dr. Sarika Gopalakrishnan
Ms. Sarika is a senior optometrist in the low vision care department of Sankara Nethralaya. She helps patient with low vision by providing appropriate devices and enhancement training to improve the quality of vision to make them function independently while performing their day to day activities. She had enrolled her PhD degree with SASTRA University, Thanjavur in the year 2016. She worked under the guidance of Dr. Rajiv Raman, senior Ophthalmologist in Vitreoretinal services of Sankara Nethralaya.
Her PhD work was on virtual reality technology to measure the visual performance of patients with low vision and augmented reality technology for intervention of patients with low vision. She completed her PhD Open viva voce titled ‘Innovative evaluation and intervention of individuals with low vision’ on 8th Mar 2022 in the presence of external examiner Dr. Suraj Senjam from R.P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS, Delhi. She was officially declared as ‘Doctorate in Philosophy’ by the SASTRA University on the same day. She has many peer reviewed publications from her PhD work.
Newsweek announces Sankara Nethralaya one of the World’s Best Hospitals 2022
Since 1978, Sankara Nethralaya has taken on the challenge of delivering patient-centric eye care consistently throughout our community care facilities. Even through the worst of the pandemic and beyond, Sankara Nethralaya rose to task of treating patients with Covid related complications as well complications which arose because patients were not able access basic eye care in time. We are happy to be acknowledged as one of the World Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 by the Newsweek- Statistica Inc. survey for the third consecutive year.
We thank our consultants, staff and paramedical staff for their continual dedication to the vision of this institution and making this international recognition possible.
Dr. Krishna Kumar S named one of the “Top 10 authors with the most publications in retinoblastoma research.”
Dr. Krishna Kumar S, Deputy Director of Research, Head of Ocular Pathology Department is named as one of the “Top 10 authors with the most publications in retinoblastoma research” in the article “Publication Trends of Research on Retinoblastoma During 2001–2021: A 20-Year Bibliometric Analysis”
The article appears in the Journal: Frontiers in Medicine, Ophthalmology.
20th Dr E Vaithilingam Memorial scientific session
20th Dr E Vaithilingam Memorial scientific session was held between March 22-26,2022 in memory of ESO’s late principal Dr E Vaithilingam. The session was organised as a five day virtual event with nine speakers from all over the world putting forward their ideas. Prof. Kovin Naidu , Dr. Vijaya K Gothwal, Dr. Kristine Dalton, Dr. Vandana Rajaram, Professor James S W Wolffsohn, Dr Lisa Keay, Dr. Uma Maheshwari K, Dr. Sajeesh Kumar and Professor Michael Webster took part in the session and enlightened about various fields of optometry like Public health, Neuroscience, Sports Optometry, Digital eye strain, Physchophysics, PROMSs and Optometry Informatics. Speakers from the University of Waterloo, University of New South Wales, University of Tennessee, Aston University, Univ. of Kwazulu-Natal, Ferris State University and University of Nevada apart from the LVPEI and SASTRA were part of the conference.
The session saw two panel discussions on the topic “Independent optometric practice” and “My PhD journey” on March 24th and March 25th respectively. Ms Savitha B, Mr Kunal Shah, Ms Vijayalakshmi B and Mr Premal Soni, all eminent independent practitioners were the panelists for the session on Independant optometric practice which was moderated by Ms Lakshmi Shinde, CEO of Optometry Council of India. Six young, enthusiastic and high spirited panelists who had obtained their doctorate recently – Dr. Deepmala Mazumder, Dr. Pradipta Bhattacharya, Dr. Prema Chande, Dr. Rekha Srinivasan, Dr. Sarika Gopalakrishnan, Dr. Sumeer Singh were invited to be the panelists for the second panel discussion on “PhD journey” and was moderated by Dr Krishna Kumar, freelance optometrist and the first to get PhD in Optometry from India. Both panel discussions were well received by the audience. Five workshops on various fields of optometry like Retina diagnostics, Glaucoma diagnostics, Corneal diagnostics, Basic school vision screening and Log Mar chart construction were organised for participants where interpretation of common diagnostic reports were covered.
A total of 158 responses from 39 college of optometry was received for free paper session and posters, from which a total of 30 oral presentations, 76 posters and 14 clinician to researcher presentation were selected for the main event. Judges from National and International universities were invited to evaluate and provide valuable feedback for the session. The following participants bagged the prizes
- Best Oral presentation-Regular- Dr Shrikant R Bharatwaj, LVPEI
- Best Oral presentation-Student- Ms Evneet Kaur, Elite School of Optometry
- Best Case report/Case series- Ms Madhumathi S. Optometrist, Sankara Nethralaya
- Best Poster-Student- Ms Aparna Hareendranathan, Sankara college of Optometry
- Best Poster-Regular-Mr Ronit Dutta, Sankara Nethralaya and Mr Sabyasachi Goswami, L V Prasad Eye Institute
Speakers
Panel Discussions
Workshops
Lion S. N. Harinarayanan receives Service Above Self Award from the Tamil Nadu Ophthalmic Association
One of Sankara Nethralaya’s most steadfast supporters and well-wishers, Lion S. N. Harinarayanan has devoted his life to making the lives of the less fortunate better. He received the Service Above Self Award by the Tamilnadu Ophthalmic Association on 20th March, 2022, instituted by the Tamil Nadu Ophthalmic Association.
Lion S. N. Harinarayanan joined Lions Club of Central Madras in 1986, with the sole objective of serving the community and reaching out to as many people as possible.
In 1998, under his leadership, the Lions Club of Central Madras championed the cause of fighting blindness. Having started with a LCIF Grant for upgrading the facilities of the Community wing at Sankara Nethralaya, to increase the number of free Cataract surgeries performed under the ‘Reach Out program’, he was instrumental in the project and in increasing the number of surgeries being performed from 4,500 to 10,000 over a period of 24 months.
Lion S. N. Harinarayanan’s resolve to dedicate his life to fighting blindness was cemented when he witnessed the impact the community services project had on the patients.
He and Lions Club of Central Madras, worked with Sankara Nethralaya, playing a vital role in facilitating funds and helping in upgrading of the equipment.
He was responsible for organizing eye screening camps in the economically weaker neighborhoods of Chennai and the neighboring villages. He was instrumental in identifying people with vision problems, bringing them to the base hospital for a comprehensive examination, arranging the required treatment, and facilitating their return journey. This end-to-end eye care approach has been developed into the complete community care services rendered by the Sankara Nethralaya Jaslok Community Ophthalmic Center.
Till date, Lion S. N. Harinarayanan and Lions Club of Central Madras has been responsible for organizing over 800 camps, facilitating 12,500 cataract surgeries and more than 1,500 other eye surgeries.
In 2003, his passion and dedication to Sight First got him involved in a three-year project of Lion’s Club of Central Madras for Screening & Treating of Diabetic Retinopathy.
Again, a LCIF Funded Project spread over Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, Villuppuram and Tiruvannamalai, created awareness about Diabetic Retinopathy, and facilitated screening camps for detection and treatment to avoid further loss of vision. The scope of the project extended to a training program for ophthalmologists working in Lions Eye Hospitals across India for screening and treating diabetic retinopathy.
Lion S. N. Harinarayanan’s contribution in the fight against preventable blindness has been recognized by many and his accolades include the Friend of Humanity’ Award from the Lions Clubs International Foundation in 2008-2009; ‘Helping Hands’ Award from the Lions Clubs International Foundation in 2009-2010, and many International President’s appreciation certificates, multiple and district certificates
Sankara Nethralaya has also awarded this dedicated and selfless philanthropist for propagating the need and necessity for eye donation and also for motivating many to donate their Cornea at the time of death.
Sankara Nethralaya salutes Lion S. N. Harinarayanan, a true champion in the fight against preventable blindness in our community for Service Above Self.
Lifting Off with Shri Taraprasad Das
Dr. Taraprasad Das, distinguished ophthalmologist, specializing in vitreoretinal diseases gave one of his rare and enlightened talks in Sri VD Swami Auditorium, on March 18th, 2022. He is the former Vice-Chairman of the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute. He had worked 10 years in Aravind Eye Hospital and 31 years in LVPEI and is the ex-director of LV Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar. Dr. Rajiv Raman, Senior Consultant, Department of Vitreoretinal services, opened the event with a brief introduction of Dr. Taraprasad Das’ numerous accomplishments and achievements during his four decade long career in eye care.
Dr. Taraprasad Dass has completed many papers in the diabetic retinopathy sub-specialty, delivered 13 named lectures, has received many awards from state, national societies and international organizations. He was the longest serving Regional Chairman of International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Southeast Asia from 2012 – 2020. He was awarded the Padma Shri – the highest civilian honor – by Government of India, in 2013. Dr. Rajiv Raman reminisced that when Dr. Taraprasad Das had visited Sankara Nethralaya, Dr. S. S. Badrinath took Dr. Taraprasad around the hospital and our distinguished guest had observed that Sankara Nethralaya was indeed a temple. He then invited Dr. Taraprasad Das on stage to introduce the theme of “Lift Off’ to the eagerly waiting audience.
Dr. Taraprasad Das reminisced about his early days in Madras where he met many of Sankara Nethralaya’s senior consultants such as Dr. Surendran, Dr. Lingam Gopal, Dr. Muna and Dr. Pramod Bhende. He spoke about his early days in Boston and thinking about how to ‘lift off’ – a terminology from aviation. He took his life lessons from mentors who influenced his decisions and helped him lift off.
He drew life lessons from his extensive experiences with the many wonderful people he met throughout his 41 years as an ophthalmologist and gained much experience through his work with national and international government collaborations.
He explained the importance of public speaking, expressing oneself in a clear manner, and touched on personal growth, while simultaneously making time for family – an important factor in becoming a well-rounded person. He touched on the necessity to identify in which areas, we should aim to achieve – whether monetarily, research, or work. He explained that by examining one’s mistakes, we grow professionally and personally. He urged the young audience members to be committed not just compliant and reminded them to do for each patient what they would do for their relatives.
You can listen to Dr. Taraprasad Das here:
https://youtu.be/BN1lnNV8KaA
Sankara Nethralaya’s Women’s Day 2022 Celebrations
To mark International Women’s Day, 8th March, 2022, the institution held a small celebratory gathering for the ladies of Sankara Nethralaya in KBIRVO block at around 4pm. After a gap of nearly 3 years, a Rangoli competition for the artists of SN to show their talents and a lucky draw were organised.
There were many enthusiastic participants and the judges could only choose 3 winners for the Rangoli competition.
First prize in the Rangoli competition went to Dr. Durga Priyadarshini S., Consultant, and Dr. Padmalakshmi K., Associate Consultant from the Department of Neuro Ophthalmology.
Second prize went to Ms. Indhu P., Optometrist, and Ms. Tharakeswari T., Senior Executive, of Department of General Optometry.
Third Prize went to Ms. Jeba Cynthia J. E., Lecturer, and Ms. Vaishnavi V., Business Development Executive, TSNA.
The ladies who won the Lucky Draw were Ramani Bai S., Staff Nurse, Dr. Veena Noronha, Radiologist, Ms. Sandhiya A., Ophthalmic Nursing Assistant, Ms. Nithyadevi S., Senior Executive, Out Patient Services, and Ms. Sumana Nandi, Deputy Manager from Department of Quality Management, SN Kolkata.
The event was a well‐deserved opportunity for the busy ladies of Sankara Nethralaya to unwind and give wing to their creativity.
