|
|
Virtual Academy: Sharing Knowledge
Aravind pioneered the concept of high volume, both in terms of patient screening and surgeries at high quality and low cost enabling effective eye care delivery system and today this model is being replicated world over. In addition to this, Aravind is well known within the country and overseas for its education & training programmes which is of a high quality. Aravind Eye Hospitals & Post graduation Institute and Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO – training division of Aravind Eye Care System) offers various courses in clinical, eye care management and paramedical areas. Aravind is also a recognised centre for MRCO (Member of Royal College of Ophthalmology) and ICO (International Council of Ophthalmology) examinations. Aravind is recognised by MGR Medical Academy to pursue doctoral programmes in clinical ophthalmology. Similarly, LAICO is recognised by IIT Madras to pursue doctoral programmes in Healthcare and Biomedical engineering. Annexure II presents the list of courses and training programmes offered by Aravind Eye Hospitals and LAICO. Aravind offers accredited post graduate courses (residency courses), long term Fellowships (for specialisation), short term Fellowships, short term clinical courses, Paramedic courses – long term and short term, Mid Level Ophthalmic Personnel training (MLOP), management (long term and short term) – both health care and eye care and task oriented courses. In all, around 34 courses structured courses are offered apart from regular CMEs (Continuous Medical Education Programmes) and customised programmes based on specific requests. So far, 10% of the ophthalmologists from India have undergone some sort of clinical training at Aravind. Till date (from 1993), around 890 national and international candidates have been trained in IOL Microsurgery training programme.
While establishing Tele-ophthalmology, Aravind’s aspiration is to become a global ophthalmic resource centre for patient consultations, education and hospital consultancy over a period of time. Aravind is also planning to set up an online portal that would assist practicing ophthalmologists and eye care managers to update their skills and knowledge. Aravind is collaborating with like minded organizations like TIFAC CORE to set up Virtual Academy that encompass a wide spectrum of activities from content development for clinical and non clinical structured courses to providing eye health education and awareness to the public which would further strengthen its mission of empowering other eye hospitals and upcoming ophthalmologists to provide good patient care and access to care by the needy.
It is envisaged that such initiative would also make available an opportunity to Aravind to collaborate with reputed tertiary care institutions in the country and act as cohesive force in all spectrum of eye care. Aravind strongly believes that providing appropriate online education would open up opportunities to many practicing ophthalmologists and also institutions which are not possible in the current scenario because of constraints faced in terms of resources and time. Certain barriers like language faced currently could also be overcome considerably by applying this technology appropriately.
Based on the experience, Aravind plans to establish Virtual Academy in a phased manner. Working in this phased manner will also help Aravind gear up appropriately while opening up virtual academy to hospitals and practitioners outside Aravind network.
- Phase I: Establish links with all the centres of Aravind
- Phase II: Extend the network to the partner hospitals LAICO is currently working with and also to the individual practitioners
Phase I: Establish links with all the centres of Aravind
At Aravind, training programmes are offered throughout the year by almost all the centres. Interactions between the centres with regard to training programmes are very minimal considering the distance (other than the videoconferencing). This makes travel inevitable to the Faculty from any of the centres. It is genuinely felt that regular interaction between these centres for training programme will help us maintain the quality of education provided that leads to sharing of knowledge as well. It is proposed to deliver online lectures for the courses offered at Aravind. As part of this, Aravind will develop content that will be modified to suit the online approach. Library at Aravind – Madurai has a splendid collection of both clinical and management books and journals that are not available at other centres. Hence, students and trainees have to wait till they receive books from the Madurai centre. Digitisation of books and making it available online will change the methodology and quality of training offered. This also avoids duplication of availing same books. Instead Aravind could subscribe to crucial journals that are not available currently. This Virtual Academy will offer both online and offline courses. To provide offline courses, a comprehensive web portal will be developed that will serve as a platform for registration and interaction. This portal will also facilitate participants to undergo tests as required.
Keeping in line with IAPB’s (International Agency of Prevention of Blindness) initiative, Vision 2020, Aravind is establishing 10 vision centres providing comprehensive primary eye care in the rural areas of Theni district where there is no adequate ophthalmic resources. Aravind has already started two such centres in Ambasamuithram and Andipatti. One of the activities of virtual academy will be to provide eye health promotion and education to rural masses in order to prevent needless blindness.
IAPB has suggested that trained human resources should be doubled from the current number on an urgent basis in order to achieve its goal of eradicating needless blindness by the year 2020. The overall impact of the virtual academy will be availability of well trained human resources in the eye care field. The significance of this being increase in the capacity to train more number of personnel at any given time.
Phase II: Extend the network to the partner hospitals LAICO is currently working with and also to the individual practitioners
LAICO is working with 177 eye care programmes within the country and overseas helping them to become sustainable and 60% of such programmes have proved to be very successful. These eye hospitals perform high volume, provide quality services and self supporting to run their programmes. Thus Aravind is able to replicate its model at various places that led to the establishment of better access of patient care to the needy population. Apart from providing consultancy, these hospitals have their employees trained regularly at Aravind in various categories. Establishing virtual academy would facilitate participating organisations undergo appropriate training without having to disrupt their regular work. This is crucial because most of these programmes work with minimal staff.
With rapid developments both in clinical and technology fronts, it becomes essential for practicing ophthalmologists to update their knowledge and skills on a regular basis. Availability of such an opportunity over online will be a boon to many. This empowers local ophthalmologists and indirectly benefits local patients as they get quality and advance care without traveling long distances.
Currently Aravind Eye Hospitals (Madurai, Theni, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Pondicherry) are connected by VSAT provided by ISRO for conducting Classes.
|
