Dr. Alan’s Visit to Aravind
9-18 August 2026
Dr. Alan L. Wagner, Founder-Chairman, and Mallory Damschroder, Director of Surgical Operations, Wagner Kapoor Institute, USA, visited various Aravind centres from 9 to 18 August 2026. They observed Aravind’s practices and led several insightful sessions on patient care and process improvement.
At Aravind-Pondicherry, Dr. Alan delivered a lecture, “A New Age Chefs,” attended by representatives from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Dr. Venkatesh led an orientation on patient flow, quality monitoring, and green sustainability initiatives.
At Aravind-Madurai, Dr. R. Kim provided an overview of hospital operations and patient flow, with a focus on retina OPD and injection processes. At LAICO, Dr. Alan led a brainstorming session with retina teams across Aravind to explore ways to improve retina services, particularly by redesigning injection workflows and reducing process time. Mallory received an orientation to OT operations under the guidance of Dr. Usha Kim and also visited an outreach camp, facilitated by R. Meenakshi Sundaram.
As part of the Grand Rounds, Dr. Alan delivered a guest lecture, “Mickey Mouse Drives a Toyota,” and conducted a session for LAICO faculty and managers titled “From Lean Thinking to Results – An Approach to Process Improvement.”
At Aravind-Chennai, Dr. Alan and Mallory were oriented to hospital processes, patient flows, and improvement initiatives by Dr. Haripriya and Dr. S. Aravind. Dr. Anand Rajendran provided an overview of the Retina Department and its workflows, while Dr. Prabu Baskaran presented FAST – Faster Access to Subspeciality Treatment.
Observational Visit
Aravind-Coimbatore, 13th August 2026
Two staff members and 61 second-year B.Sc. Nursing students from Hindusthan College of Nursing visited Aravind-Coimbatore for an observational visit. The visit provided the students with practical exposure to the functioning of the Eye Bank, eye donation procedures, corneal retrieval and preservation, and the vital role of eye donation in restoring vision.
The programme was organised as part of an educational initiative to enhance awareness among nursing students about eye donation and corneal transplantation. The students actively participated in the programme and showed keen interest in learning about the various aspects of eye donation and transplantation.
Exposure Visits
Aravind-Madurai, 31st July to 1st August 2026
Padmavathy Shenoy, Independent Consultant, and Guruprakash Shetty, Deputy General Manager, SELCO India, Bengaluru, along with his team, visited Aravind-Madurai, to understand the Aravind model of social enterprise and explore its potential application to SELCO’s external consulting, training, and advocacy initiatives.
The visit provided insights into LAICO’s role and key initiatives, Aravind’s Seven Pillars and their contribution to organisational sustainability and scale, approaches to external funding, research and knowledge dissemination, the Aravind October Summit, vision stories, and outreach models. The team also explored how these practices could be adapted to different social enterprise contexts.
The visit enabled the SELCO team to gain a deeper understanding of Aravind’s approach to creating and sustaining social impact, with learnings that could support the future expansion of SELCO’s external services globally.
Madurai/Dindigul, 4th August 2026
Dr. Mathew Pappachan, Director, along with the team from Lifeline Multispecialty Hospital, Adoor, Kerala, visited Aravind-Dindigul and Aravind-Madurai as part of their initiative to establish an eye care unit as an additional service within their existing multispecialty hospital.
The visit provided the team with an opportunity to gain insights into Aravind’s approach to eye care delivery, including service systems, facility planning, infrastructure, workflows, and manpower requirements for integrating eye care services into a multispecialty hospital. Following the hospital visits, the team visited LAICO for further discussions on their proposed eye care project, with a focus on planning and developing a sustainable eye care unit to serve the community.
Aravind-Madurai, 26th August 2026
Kathleen A. Sherwin, President & CEO, Orbis International, New York, USA, along with Rishi Raj Borah, Country Director – India, and Lijin Idicula, Communications Manager, Orbis International, New Delhi, India, visited Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai.
The visit provided the team with an opportunity to gain insights into the Aravind Model, review updates on Orbis International-supported projects at Aravind and their impact, and visit Aurolab to understand its operations and contribution to eye care.
29th August 2026
Dhirendra Nath, Chief Human Resource Officer, Altimetrik, who leads the company’s global people strategy, talent agenda, and organisational development initiatives, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Family Businesses at IIM Visakhapatnam, visited Aravind as part of his research.
The visit focused on understanding how family owners’ motivations, priorities, and values influence HR practices and organisational outcomes in family-run enterprises. During his visit, he interacted with senior leaders and staff members of Aravind through surveys and discussions to gain insights into the development of best practices that contribute to the sustainability and long-term success of family businesses.