Aravind remains steadfast in its commitment to expanding eye care services through various possible means. The recent inauguration of ARCORE, along with the establishment of new vision centres, and the organisation of managerial courses for international participants, highlight its ongoing contributions to the field.

The opening of ARCORE, a state-of-the-art training facility at Aravind-Chennai, marked a significant initiative to share Aravind’s extensive expertise in eye care. ARCORE offers hybrid skill enhancement courses that combine virtual and hands-on sessions, broadening the learning opportunities for participants.

Additionally, the recent inauguration of a vision centre in Harur, Dharmapuri District, brings the total number of Aravind vision centres to 114, aiming to serve the local population around Harur Taluk. Moreover, the management course conducted by LAICO attracted participants from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Nepal, and Zambia, equipping them to enhance eye care delivery in their respective regions.

News about these and much more occurred between 15th June and 15th July are featured in this edition.

Malaysia, 11-13 July

Dr. Sathya T. Ravilla, Medical Consultant, Paediatric Ophthalmology & Adult Strabismus Services, Aravind-Tirupati
2^nd Place in Poster Village
Title: Creating a smartphone app to improve compliance to Brock String therapy

Dr. Shashikant Shetty, Chief, Paediatric Ophthalmology & Adult Strabismus Services, Aravind-Madurai
3^rd place in Video Kiosk
Title: A case of periodic alternating skew deviation

Dr. Marie Fredrick Mouttapa, Medical Consultant, Paediatric Ophthalmology & Adult Strabismus Services, Aravind-Pondicherry
3^rd  Place in Poster Village
Title: Eyes at risk: Exploring vernal conjunctivitis and its link to keratoconus prevalence

Dr. Kunjal Gala, DNB Resident, Aravind-Chennai
3^rd Place in Free Paper (Adult Ophthalmology)
Title: A comparative analysis of isolated ocular motor nerve palsies in patients above and below 50 years

Punjab, 6-7 July

Thulasiraj Ravilla, Director-Operations, Aravind Eye Care System (AECS), was honoured with the prestigious Guru Dronacharya Award 2023 at the 18th edition of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight-INDIA national conference held at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab. This prestigious award recognises his excellence in the field of community eye care in the form of mentoring eye care institutions on a sustained basis covering a comprehensive set of systems, for several years.

Raichel R, Assistant Manager, Quality, Aravind-Pondicherry, won the Best Paper Award for her paper titled, Performing successful cataract surgery through digital monitoring: GoProLive.

Sumathy A, Manager, Camp, Aravind-Pondicherry, won the Best Paper Award for her paper titled, Repurposing: An interesting approach to eye care waste.

Vikky Kumar M, Manager-Quality & Inpatient Services, Aravind-Tirunelveli, won Best Poster Award for his poster titled, Comparison of efficacy of vision centres and comprehensive eye camps in detection of specialty cases.

Chennai, 6-7 July

Dr. Apurva Nagtode, Cornea Fellow, Aravind-Pondicherry, won the grand prize at the film festival of the Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society of India (IIRSI) Convention 2024, held at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. The award was given for her video titled, AB-Interno Schlemm’s canal surgery: Touch, tear, and thread technique.

Chennai, 23^rd June

Dr. Shreeya Hinge, and Dr. Kaavya Khatri, Postgraduates, Aravind-Pondicherry, secured second prize in the PG/Fellow Quiz contest, with a cash prize at the “Fracture Repair And Clinical Tips Under Real Experts” (FRACTURE 24) CME, held at Sankara Netralaya, Chennai.

Aravind-Theni, Saturday, 15^th June

Aravind-Theni was awarded “Best Single Specialty Hospital Below 100 Beds – Central Zone” at the programme organised by the Association of Health Providers India (AHPI).

Aravind-Salem, 14^th July

Aravind-Salem organised the CME with participation from 74 doctors. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. B. Manohar Babu, Chief Medical Officer, Aravind-Salem, Dr. V.R. Saravanan, Chief, Retina Vitreous Services, Aravind-Coimbatore, Dr. Karthick Srinivasan, Medical Consultant, Retina Vitreous Services, Aravind-Chennai, and representatives from the Salem Ophthalmic Association. The event featured 14 talks, five case presentations by postgraduates, a hands-on demonstration session, and OSCEs, comprehensively covering the key topics in detail. The event was moderated by senior faculty members in the field of Retina and Vitreous services across various institutions. The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. K. Hemalatha, Medical Consultant, Retina Vitreous Services, Aravind-Salem.

Aravind-Salem, 10^th July

The 114^th Vision Centre of the AECS in Harur Taluk, Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu, was inaugurated by Dr. Jayaraman, Ophthalmologist, in the presence of Dr. Manohar Babu, Chief Medical Officer, Aravind-Salem, and A.K.P. Moorthi, Correspondent, Indian Matric School, Harur. The event was also attended by camp sponsors representing Lions Club, Harur, including T. Rajendran, Theerthamalai, and Nethaji, along with other well-wishers. This centre was the ninth vision centre under Aravind-Salem, marking an expansion of its service area. On the inaugural day, the centre screened 97 patients, a successful start in providing primary eye care services to the local population.

Aravind-Chennai, 5^th July

Organised by Aravind-Chennai, the retreat was attended by 32 participants from all Aravind Tertiary Eye Care Centres, including Head of the Department, Medical officers, Research coordinators, MLOPs – OT & OPD, Wet lab & IOL clinic coordinators. The guest speaker was Dr. Jeff Pettey, Professor & Clinical Vice-Chair of the Moran Eye Center, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah. The retreat provided a common platform for sharing and learning from one another, fostering ongoing improvement in the quality of care for cataract patients.

Aravind-Coimbatore, 28-30 June

The three-day programme held at Aravind-Coimbatore saw participation from over 200 residents from across the country. Inaugurated by Dr. Prashant Bawankule, Chairman, AIOS ARC, and Dr. Shrinivas Joshi, Member, AIOS ARC, South Zone, the programme featured 50 insightful lectures by both internal and external faculty members. The event included hands-on workshops and interactive sessions, fostering an environment of learning and professional growth. Additionally, six dry lab sessions were conducted by 18 faculty members. Dr. Usha Kim served as a speaker, presenting a topic on “Lid Margin Anomalies” and as a panellist during a session on Orbit/Oculoplasty.

Aravind-Tirupati, 28^th June

As part of the “My Life My Pride” initiative led by Veni, Administrator, LAICO, MLOPs have been trained in Taekwondo and dance classes according to their choice for over a 6 – month period. The Taekwondo trainees took the grade exam for Yellow-1 and Green belt on 2^nd June 2024. Over a period of six months training, they received three belts which was commemorated with a certificate awarding ceremony on 28^th June 2024. Anupama who handled life skill classes, distributed certificates for the yellow belt. Additionally, the dance students completed their six months course, received certificates during the same occasion. The programme also featured an entertaining show by the Taekwondo and dance students, performing various dance show, kicking techniques, sparring, and tile breaking.

Moreover, MLOPs holding Green Belt have won three gold medals, and one silver medal at the KYORUGI CHAMPIONSHIP 2024 held on 14th July 2024, showcasing their talent. Further, they were selected for the district level competition.

Aravind-Chennai, 21^st June

Aravind-Chennai opened ARCORE, a cutting-edge training facility, to share Aravind’s significant expertise in eye care. ARCORE will facilitate hybrid skill enhancement through various courses that combine virtual and hands-on sessions, as well as observation. It will increase global connectivity by broadening learning horizons through classroom and recorded lectures, live streaming sessions, live wet lab streaming, and a comprehensive reference library. Global leaders such as Alcon, Zeiss, Aurolab, and Essilor are industry partners for ARCORE.

Padma Shri Prof. Dr. Jeewan S. Titiyal, Chief, Dr. R.P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences & Dean Research, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, inaugurated ARCORE in the presence of Rtn. Ravi Raman, District Governor, Dr. P. Namperumalsamy, Chairman Emeritus, AECS, Dr. G. Natchiar, Director Emeritus, AECS, Dr. R.D. Ravindran, Chairman & Director – Quality, AECS, Dr. Aravind S, Chief Medical Officer, Aravind-Chennai, & Director Projects, AECS, and Dr. Haripriya Aravind, Chief, Cataract Services, Aravind-Chennai.

Aravind-Tirunelveli, 21^st June

In celebration of International Yoga Day, Ramasamy, a yoga instructor from Valga Valamudan with nearly 25 years of experience, taught Yoga for MLOPs on basic Yoga Asanas, meditation, and pranayama for a healthier and stress-free life. Additionally, two female yoga instructors from Valga Valamudan provided training. The participants found the session very useful and enjoyable.

Aurolab, 6-7 July

Aurolab participated in two National-level conferences: the Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society of India (IIRSI) Convention 2024, held at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, on 6-7 July and the Vision 2020: The Right to Sight-INDIA national conference held at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, on the same date. Aurolab team showcased their products at these conferences with great enthusiasm.

During the Vision 2020 conference, some of the presentations and talks highlighted the significant role and impact of Aurolab’s products. Dr. Rishi Raj Singh, Chief Surgeon & Director, Dr. Rishi Eye Institute, Karnal, Haryana delivered a talk on Getting the best out of your phaco system. Additionally, Mohammad Gowth, Senior Faculty, LAICO, on the topic, Real time learning from Tele-ophthalmology with slitlamp camera, and Riyah Jaitika, Manager, Quality Assurance, Aravind-Chennai presented a paper on, Analysing the safety and efficacy of a stereo coaxial illumination device for cataract surgeries.

Aurolab, 10^th July

Aurolab’s state-of-the-art IOL Skill Development Centre was inaugurated by Dhivya Ramasamy, Executive Director, LAICO, along with Dr. G. Natchiar, Director-Emeritus, AECS, Dr. P. Balakrishnan, Managing Director Emeritus, Aurolab, in the presence of Thulasiraj Ravilla, Director Emeritus, LAICO. This event marked a significant milestone in Aurolab’s journey to nurture and develop young talents. This facility is designed to offer trainees an optimal learning environment where they can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to manufacture world-class IOLs.

LAICO, 13^th June-3^rd July

 The 52^nd Batch of the course organised by LAICO included 10 participants from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Nepal, India, and Zambia. The course featured classroom sessions including lectures on demand generation, service marketing, GIS planning, and eye care need estimation for the service area population. Participants had the opportunity to meet community sponsors and attend various eye camps and eye camp monitoring meetings. They observed counselling procedures, and were trained to develop health education materials. By the end of the training, they developed outreach strategies for their hospitals, which they will implement upon return to their countries.

Odisha, 18-22 June

As part of the on-going SEVA-Global Sight Initiative and LEAP Collaborative on Closing the Loop for Cataract and Spectacles, Syed Ali, Senior Faculty, LAICO, and Dr. K. Venkata Sudheer, Medical Consultant, Glaucoma Services, Aravind-Tirupati, made a three-day visit to Sankara Eye Hospital, Samarajhola, Odisha. The purpose of the visit was to understand the hospital’s performance and operations with the aim of developing a long-term strategic plan and to study the current protocols and gaps in terms of cataract and spectacle acceptance.

Malaysia, 11-13 July

Doctors from Aravind Eye Hospitals, participated in the 5^th World Congress of Paediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus in conjunction with 14^th Malaysian Society of Ophthalmology Annual Scientific meeting, held at Kuala Lumpur,  and presented papers, posters, and videos at various sessions.  Dr. P. Vijayalakshmi, Senior Medical Consultant, Paediatric Ophthalmology Services, Aravind-Madurai, was one among the four key note speakers. She spoke on the topic, Transforming disability (visual) to ability in children. It was a proud moment for the Aravind Alumni and participants during the conference when Dr. P. Vijayalakshmi received a standing ovation after delivering her talk.

Dr. Kalpana Narendran

• Secondary IOL Implantation in Children

Dr. B. Sahithya

• Referal uptake in school screening among children poster village (Oral Presentation)
• Comparetive study on outreach screening model vs hospital based screening for children with multi disabilities (Poster village – Oral presentation)
• Smart vision glasses (Video presentation)

Dr. M. Elackiya

• Straatsma syndrome: Clinical profile – a case series (poster)
• Deciphering the telltake sign: Pursuit dysfunction in a kid leads way to detection of medulloblastoma (Video presentation)

Dr. Shashikant Shetty

• Nystagmus session (Moderator)
• Syndromes associated with strabismus along with management (Moderator)
• Non surgical management of nystagmus (Talk)

Dr. Sneha Pandurangan

• Long term post operative followup outcome in paediatric cataract surgery in a tertiary care Institute (Free paper)
• Pattern of progression and characteristics of infantile myopia (e-Poster:)

Dr. Nithya Sridharan

• Rise of acute comitent esotropia post covid-19 lockdown (Paper presentation)

Dr. Anjali Khadia

• Surgical outcomes of esotropia in children: A retrospective comparative study (Poster)
• Clinical profile of paediatric strabismus in a Tertiary Eye Care Hospital in South India (Poster)
• Magic ball of strabismus (Video presentation)
• A simple way for teaching residents on the strabismus examination (Video presentation)

Dr. Ankita Bisani

• Combined unilateral strabismus and cataract surgery (StaCS) in adults: safety, efficacy and predictive factors (Free paper)
• Straastma syndrome – Peadiatric case series (e-Poster)
• Combination of strabismus surgeries with other anterior segments surgeries – Two targets with one shot (Video presentation)

Dr. R. Janani

• Surgical management of third nerve palsy, a comparison of lateral rectus deactivation combined with medial rectus resection versus medial rectus fixation to medial palpebral ligament (Free paper)
• A rare case in a child with mild trichothiodystrophy associated with ERCC2 gene (e-Poster)
• Help Me Train: Squint surgery simulation model (Video presentation)

Dr. Anupama Janardhanan

• Customised Augmented Kestenbaum – Anderson surgery: A novel technique for Infantile nystagmus with large Abnormal head posture! (Poster Village presentations)
• Clinical characteristics, visual outcome and a new classification of pediatric posterior polar cataracts.
• Skew deviation with internuclear ophthalmoplegia post covid vaccination: A rare case report (e-Poster)

Dr. A. Fathima

• HIDDEN SURPRISE: Management of a case of Retroflexion of Iris (Video presentation)
• Long term outcome of modified capsular tension ring fixation (mCTR) and IOL placement among paediatric patients (e-Poster)
• Refractive error profile and influencing factors among siblings (e-Poster)

Dr. Sasikala Elizabeth

• Paradigm shift in the prevalence of new onset childhood myopia: A study from a tertiary eye institute in South India (Paper)
• Analysis of identification sources, referral patterns, and clinical profiles of pediatric cataract patients at a Tertiary Eye Care Hospital (Paper)
• The journey of the child with iris cyst: A case study (Video presentation)
• Surgical management bilateral sixth nerve palsy: A case report and surgical technique demonstration (Video presentation)

Dr. Amrutha Sindhu

• Clinical profile and Visual outcome of paediatric optic neuritis- case series (Free paper)

Dr. Sathya T Ravilla

• Innovations that make paeditaric eye exam a disney experience (Video presentation)
  Video kiosk: New Flanged technique for Iridodialysis repair

Dr. Divya Shenoy

• Understanding dissociated horizontal deviations (Video presentation)
• Spectrum of eye disorders between 0-3 years age group (e-Poster)

Dr. Saranya Settu

• The magic of Faden has not faded yet! – An effective approach in incomitant strabismus (Video presentation)
• A retrospective comparison between Sanders-Retzlaff-Kraff II and Barrett II universal formula in children 9-16 years of age with developmental cataract (Poster presentation)
• Tale of two curves – Keratoconus and posterior lenticonus in a child (e-Poster)

Dr. Akila

• Surgical outcomes of exotropia with high myopia – A retrospective study (Poster presentation)
• Double surprise in a case of double elevator palsy (e-Poster)
• Duane’s retraction syndrome with Retinitis Pigmentosa – A rare atypical association (e-Poster)
• Pseudo iris cyst in traumatic cataract – A surprise decoded by UBM (Video presentation)

Punjab, 6-7 July

Aravind staff members participated in the 18th edition of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight-INDIA national conference held at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab.

Below is the list of talks and presentations by Aravind members.

Talks:

Dr. R.D. Ravindran

• Prevalence of cataract in Indian population & management strategies
• Role of leadership in improving surgical outcome
• Minimising environmental footprint of eye care & surgery

R.D. Thulasiraj

• Role of right pricing- capacity to pay in the catchment and willingness to pay

 Dhivya Ramasamy

• Competency-based approach to staffing vision centres
• Costs and profitability

Mohammed Gowth

• Real-time learning from teleophthalmology with slit-lamp camera

 Chandravadhana H

• Sharing the experience of mentoring an eye hospital to get NABH entry level accreditation

D. Ranitha Guna Selvi

• Greening healthcare: Environmental impact reduction via vision centres

Rajesh

• Smart vision glasses: Adding value to the visually impaired

Saravanan

• Hospital cornea retrieval programme: Integrating with all levels of health care

Jerrome Selvaraj

• Impact of community-based eye health education programme on service uptake and specialty diagnosis in Vision Centres: Arogya Pariwar programme

Paper Presentations:

Jerrome Selvaraj

• Impact of pupillary dilation on retinal image quality and AI-based early detection of diabetic retinopathy among elderly patients

Vinoth Kumar Rajendran

• Annual proportion of eye injury patients presenting at vision centres: A retrospective analysis in a southern Indian population
• Impact of vision centres on achieving universal eye health coverage: prevalence, coverage, and utilisation of eye care services in Southern India

M. Vikky Kumar

• Comparison of efficacy of vision centre and comprehensive eye camps in detection of specialty cases

Akshaya R.B.

• Improving patient communication through Dhrishti mobile application system
• Use of glasses without bandage post phacoemulsification cataract surgery

S. Rajesh

• Impact of same-day cataract surgery procedures on the acceptance rate of cataract surgery at Aravind vision centres, Chennai

 Riyah Jaitika

• Analysing the safety and efficacy of a stereo coaxial illumination device for cataract surgeries
• PSDM (Patient safety daily meet): Proactive approach towards ensuring patients safety

 Revathy Kannadasan

• Introducing surgery prediction vs. actual analytics in eye care services

 Jeyaseeli Flora H

• Inclusive screening for children with multiple disabilities: An outreach model

 P Hinduja

• Cataract counselling enquiry desk to improve patient’s surgery acceptance rate

 Murugaraj G

• A study of patient digital usage habits, access, and attitudes at a high-volume eye hospital in Southern India

Udayakumar B

• Factors affecting follow-up adherence of glaucoma patients

Santhosha Ganesh

• Enhancing the performance and efficiency in glaucoma clinic: Application of lean management principal

Poster Presentation:

Sumathy

• Comprehensive preventive eye care screening for patient relatives: A catalyst for early ophthalmic disease detection

D. Ranitha Guna Selvi

• Instrumenting safe intra ocular lens implantation

Santhosha Ganesh

• Factors influencing non-adherence of follow-up in childhood glaucoma

Dhivya Ramasamy

• Patient enquiries provide valuable insight

Raichel R

• Incremental Innovation in Operation Theatre

Revathy Kannadasan

• To develop operational efficient eye care model with developing an in-house training model for allied eye care personnel (MLOP)

 Udayakumar B

• Salience effect of clinical interventions and disease progression in follow adherence of patients

Mexico, 26-27 June

Dhivya Ramasamy, Executive Director, LAICO, participated in the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) In Sight Meeting, held at Mexico, and presented a talk on the topic, Panel on sustainability and eye care.