Contact Lens
ESO & TSNA Students Shine at 60th Indian Contact Lens Education Programme
Our Masters Optometry students from the Elite School of Optometry (ESO) and The Sankara Nethralaya Academy (TSNA) won a feat of awards at the “60th Indian Contact Lens Education Programme (ICLEP)” held at LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad on July 14th, 2024.
Ms. Janani B from ESO, SASTRA, emerged as the “WINNER” for her oral presentation titled “Cost and Benefits of Availing Specialty Contact Lenses from the Perspective of Patients.” Her research, supervised by Dr. Anuradha, Ms. Swetha, and Ms. S. Madhumathi, impressed the judges and highlighted the economic and therapeutic advantages of specialty contact lenses.
Ms. Archita Kakti from TSNA secured the “RUNNER UP” award for her insightful presentation on “Evaluation of Changes in Ocular Surface Parameters in Neophyte Soft Contact Lens Users.” Her study, under the guidance of Ms. S. Madhumathi and Mr. Ronit Dutta, shed light on the impact of contact lens use on ocular surface health in new users.
In addition to these top honors, four abstracts from our Masters students were selected for oral presentations at the conference, showcasing their innovative research and clinical findings:
Ms. Sindhu Vaishnavi from TSNA presented her work on “Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients Wearing Scleral Lenses,” supervised by Ms. S. Madhumathi, Ms. Akshaya Balakrishnan, and Ms. S. Karpagavalli. Her research focused on the positive impact of scleral lenses on the quality of life in young patients.
Mr. Priyom Parashar from TSNA shared a “Case Report on Managing Nystagmus: A Comprehensive Approach for Improved Outcomes,” guided by Mr. Praveen Kumar, Mr. Amit Bhowmick, Mr. Krishna Shah, and Ms. S. Madhumathi. His detailed case study provided valuable insights into managing nystagmus for better patient outcomes.
Specialty Contact Lens Workshop by Sankara Nethralaya & CooperVision Eye Care
“The Department of Contact Lens, Sankara Nethralaya, Medical Research Foundation in collaboration with Silver Line Laboratories (Blanchard lenses, CooperVision Specialty EyeCare conducted a Two-day workshop on Specialty Contact Lenses to for all the practitioners covering the fitting aspects of the specialty lenses and case-based approaches in various clinical settings on November 26th & 27th, 2022 (Saturday & Sunday). The main objective of this workshop was to train and reach private contact lens practitioners, ophthalmologists, postgraduates, and fellows on the concepts of Orthokeratology and Scleral Contact Lens fitting. This workshop has indeed met its purpose, and we have got around 35 registrants across the states with distinguished years of experience who had actively taken part on both days.
Dr. Sumitha Agarkar, Deputy Director, Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology welcomed the audience and briefed on the importance of Myopia management aspects in India. Following this, Ms. G. Aparna, Doctoral Researcher from the Myopia Clinic addressed the “Myopia control options practiced at our hospital “on the first day.
On the second day, Ms. S. Madhumathi, In-charge Contact Lens Clinic delivered a talk on the “Overall Scleral Lens fitting approaches” before the guest talk.
“For the first time in India, We had the honor of launching Coopervision Eyecare’s FDA-approved Myopia control lens – Paragon CRT – Ortho K lenses and Onefit MED Scleral lenses” at Sankara Nethralaya during the Workshop.”
We had International and National Speakers, Mr. Moodi Kupperman, Global Professional Services, CooperVision Eyecare, and Mr. Gagan Sahni, Technical Director of Silverline Laboratories who had briefed on the fitting aspects of FDA-approved orthokeratology lenses – Paragon CRT lenses and OneFIT Med Scleral lenses.
We had brainstorming and interactive discussions with the guest Speakers on the fitting aspects of these specialty lenses in different case scenarios.
We had a “LIVE fitting demonstration of the Specialty Contact Lenses “on two of our patients who gave their consent to participate in the workshop.
Also, Silver line Laboratories have come upon and agreed to waive the lens cost for those 2 deserving patients who participated in the LIVE demo fitting.
As a part of their support, they have contributed the “Onefit MED Scleral lens trial set to our Contact Lens Clinic “for encouraging many more lens fits.
All the participants received the participation certificates at the end of the workshop. Overall, the program was successful and garnered lots of positive remarks such as a “well-organized event and gain of good knowledge about the specialty lenses and suggestions to conduct more such Workshops in the future.”
The entire contact lens team, led by Ms. Madhumathi, including Ms. Karpaagavalli, Ms. Manju, Ms. Akshaya Balakrishnan, Mr. Ronit Dutta, Ms. Varsha Harinya, Ms. Flora Fathima Mary, and Ms. Glady, helped us from the flyer preparation to the patient’s coordination, and their efforts and active participation were instrumental in the workshop’s success. We thank Mr. Abdul Majid, Ms. Juliet, and Ms. Malliga for lending a hand during the workshop and taking care of the clinic.
1st Dr. Rajeswari Mahadevan Memorial Scientific Session 9 Sep 2020
Dr. Rajeswari Mahadevan, fondly called as Raji, who headed the contact lens clinic for almost two decades, epitomized leadership, courage, resilience, dedication, perfection, and innovation. She brought in all the best practices and advancements in the field of contact lenses and specialty contact lenses to Sankara Nethralaya that raised the status of the contact lens clinic at SN to the Numero Uno position.
Raji graduated from the prestigious Elite school of Optometry (ESO) in 1998 and went ahead to pursue her M.Phil and Ph.D. in contact lenses while continuing to serve at SN. She held a number of first-of-its-kind accolades including a Ph.D. in the field of specialty contact lenses, PROSE clinical fellowship from the Boston Foundation for Sight, USA to becoming the Asia Pacific Regional President of the executive board of the “International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE)”. She became a Fellow of the International Association of Contact Lens Educators (FIACLE) in 2000, obtained FSLS a fellowship from the scleral lens education society in 2014, awarded the first initiated, ‘Educator of the Year’ award in the field of contact lens in Asia pacific region for the year 2014, received the Fellowship from the British Contact Lens Association (FBCLA) in the year 2014, Fellowship from the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) in 2016, and served as the Asia Pacific – President for IACLE. The proudest moment in her life was authoring her first book on “Trouble Shooting and Problem Solving in Contact Lens Practice,” which was released during the ESO’s International Vision Science and Optometry Conference in 2015 by her revered Guru Mahatria Ra. She had also authored a chapter on “Role of Contact Lens in Different Environment” in ‘Dr. Santanam’s Text book of Occupational Optometry’ and also contributed a chapter on “Cornea and Contact Lens” in Peyman’s Ophthalmology.
The American Academy of Optometry has honored Raji with a posthumous honorary Diplomate in the Cornea, Contact Lens and Refractive Therapy (CCLRT) section – the highest recognition in the field one could possibly ever get right now. This shows the exemplary clinician researcher that Raji was across the global fraternity!
On her fond memory, the Medical Research Foundation had organized a Memorial Scientific Session on her birthday, September 9, 2020 to celebrate her legacy in contact lens and research. The first Dr. Rajeswari Mahadevan Memorial Scientific Session was a virtual conference with a live telecast on YouTube. The conference brought together budding clinicians and researchers from contact lens and optometry background.
Prof.Edward S. Bennett, Executive Director and President of GP Lens Institute, Clinical Features Editor of the Contact lens Spectrum, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri – St. Louis College of Optometry, was the Oration speaker. His oration on “Indications and fitting of corneal GP designs – Has it changed over the years and how?” enlightened the audience with insights and journey of GP lenses
The Keynote speaker was Dr. R. Krishnakumar, freelance Optometrist and Educationalist and Former Principal of Elite School of Optometry. His address on “Integrated practice model for Optometrists in India” was very informative to the upcoming optometrists.
The session had a panel discussion by experts in the field of contact lens, Dr. Anitha Arvind, Specialty Contact Lens Practitioner, Co-educator for Rose-k lenses and Reviewer for Contact lens and Anterior Eye, Mr. Preetam Kumar, Consultant Optometrist, Cornea and Contact Lens Services, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Ms. Rinu Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Optometry, Manipal Institute of Health Professionals and Mr. Asif Iqbal, Senior Optometrist, Sankara Nethralaya. The discussion was on “Specialty Contact Lenses in Ocular Surface Disorders – Present and Future”. The discussion was based on the common challenges faced by practitioners in the clinic and the way to handle it professionally. The recent advances in specialty lenses for Ocular surface disorders and its practice in India was also discussed.
The scientific session consisted of e-posters, oral presentations and panel discussion. Abstracts were also available in the E-abstract book in the website. A total of 17 E-posters and 5 oral presentations were short-listed, out of which, 2 best E-posters and 1 best oral presentation were awarded a certificate and an award money of Rs.10,000 each by the Medical Research Foundation. The winners for the best E-posters were, Mr. Asif Iqbal, Senior Optometrist, Contact Lens department, Sankara Nethralaya and Ms. Akshaya C. Balakrishnan, Graduate Student, Elite School of Optometry. The best oral presentation was awarded to Ms. Pooja Nandagopal, Graduate Student, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
The session with almost 1.5k views in YouTube was successfully received by the audience. It was an event of pride for the entire contact lens team of Sankara Nethralaya to conduct the first scientific session in Dr. Rajeswari’s memory.
Eleventh Dr E.Vaithilingam Memorial Scientific Session
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