Dr. P.Sundaresan, Senior Scientist, Aravind Medical Research Foundation received CREST (Cutting Edge Research Enhancement and Scientific Training) Award by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India which aims to promote capacity building in cutting edge areas of biotechnology and life sciences. The award supports scientists/clinicians of highest merit in their pursuit of skill enhancement in scientific research/training in overseas laboratories. Subsequently Dr. Sundaresan underwent training at Centre for Vision and Vascular Science, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK.

As part of expanding eye care services to the needy, Aravind opened a new hospital in Salem on November 27, 2011. Over 10,000 cataract patients from Salem are being benefited every year through the outreach activities performed in this area by Aravind - Madurai. It has been observed that several patients from Salem utliize the facilities in Aravind Eye Hospitals at Madurai, Coimbatore and Pondicherry. Understanding the need for a quality affordable eye care service in and around Salem, the management was prompted to think of starting a new hospital. The hospital caters to the eye care needs of a population of more than 3 million in and around Salem. Its prime location makes it easily accessible for the patients. This 50 - bedded hospital sprawls an area of 42,000 sq.ft and provides all the speciality services in eye care.

Honorable Justice Thiru. P. Sathasivam, Judge, Supreme Court of India inaugurated the hospital after the sacred pooja. Thiru. Maharabhushanam, I.A.S., District Collector, Salem was the chief guest for the function. Felicitations were offered by Thiru. P. Sarathy, Chairman, Narasus Sarathy Institute of Technology, Salem; Thiru. S. Krishnamoorthy, S.K Cars, Salem and Ln. A.S. Aravinthraj MJF. All the senior leaders of Aravind attended the grand opening ceremony.

Mr. R. D. Thulasiraj inaugurated Aravind’s new vision centre at Kadayanallur. This is the 40th vision centre of Aravind and is manned by Aravind – Tirunelveli. The function was attended by doctors, members of Rotary Club of Puliangudi, Lions Club of Kadyanallur, TVS Group and well wishers of AECS.

  Dr. Haripriya Aravind
- Subluxated lenses and hard cataracts

Dr. R.D. Ravindran was invites as the key note speaker for The King’s Fund Annual Conference held at the Royal College of Physicians, London and he delivered a talk on the Aravind model of Enhancing access and affordability.

  Mr. R.D. Thulasiraj addressed the senior team of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy at the annual meet of the organization held at Banglore.

  Dr. Rathinam Sivakumar gave a talk on Systematic diagnostic approach and management of noninfectious Uveitis at the Allergan Academic Achievers Award ceremony.

  Dr. Saravanan V.R
-  Sub-ILM fluid collection in a young girl
Dr. George Manayath
-  Low-fluence photodynamic therapy for early onset choroidal neovascular membrane following Laser in Situ Keratomileusis (poster)
- Diabetic membrane peeling: From scissors to cutter – An exhilarating journey towards microincisional sutureless vitrectomy (video)
Dr. Abhishek Kothari
- OCT in peripheral retina
Dr. Amit Gupta
- Correlation between vein occlusion related macular edema morphology and treatment response with Bevacizumab and Triamcinolone (poster)
Dr. Saurabh Arora
- Is myopia a protector factor against central serous chorio retinopathy? (free paper)
Dr. Aravind Pal Singh
-  Prevalence of Diabetic Retinopathy in Type-2 Diabetics in rural versus urban population of Punjab (India)
Dr. Sandeep Bachu
 -  Visual function outcome following panretinal photocoagulation for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (Poster)
Dr. Dhananjay Shukla
- Chaired the session, diagnostic tools for vitreo retinal diseases
Dr. Naresh Babu
- Inverse drainage of preretinal blood in Valsalva Retinopathy (poster)
Dr.Anand Rajendran
Participated in the Symposium on Challenging cases: The tear-full eye
Dr.Umesh Chandra Behera
- Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose Retinopathy (poster)
Dr. Jatinder Singh
- Long-term surgical outcome of vitreo-retinal surgery in patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis-related Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (poster)
Dr. Praveen Muraly
- Cone dystrophy – Is OCT of any use? (Poster)
- Economical impact of single sitting of Pascal laser PRP Vs multiple sitting of conventional laser (poster)
Dr. V. Narendran, Dr. Venugopal Reddy and Dr. Syed Mohideen Abdul Kader also participated in the conference.

  Practical examination for the DOT (Diploma in Ophthalmic Techniques) students was held at Aravind – Pondicherry which was attended by a total of 54 candidates. Dr.S.Thanikachalam, Dr. K. Vijayapriya, (ophthalmologists from General Hospital-Pondicherry) Dr. K. Veena, Dr. S. Kavitha were the external examiners for the practical and viva-voce examination. A total of 25 students from first year and 29 students from second year were attended the examination successfully.

The third anniversary celebrations of Anaimalai vision centre was organised at V.R.T Govt. Girl's Higher Secondary School, Anaimalai. An eye care awareness exhibition with displaying also the functions of Vision Centre was arranged. As part of creating awareness on eye care, a rally was formed by the students of V.R.T. Girl’s Govt. Higher Secondary School. School Screening camp was conducted a day before in the same school and spectacles were distributed for the children. A Diabetic Retinopathy Screening camp was held in the same premises, where the outpatient turnout was 229 patients with 62 known diabetics and 3 new diabetes patients. Various community leaders participated in the celebrations.

Ln. Govindasamy, President, Lions Club of Anaimalai welcomed the gathering. Dr. Ramakrishnan briefed the functions and uses of Primary Eye Care Centre in the community to a gathering of 300 persons. Sr Usharani, vision centre technician presented the annual report of the centre. Mr.Ravichandran, camp organiser rendered a vote of thanks. Dr. Nithya - Senior Resident & Incharge of Anaimalai centre and Dr. Saurabh- Retina Fellow were the key persons in making the camp successful.

  A total of 75 students and faculty from Sabari College of Nursing visited Aravind-Pondicherry and were briefed on the Aravind model. Dr.Pragnaraj Paul handled informative sessions on eye bank and common eye diseases. The team also enjoyed a tour of the hospital.

Ms. P.Murugeswari, Pre-Doctoral Fellow has defended her thesis entitled Molecular Mechanisms of Diabetic Retinopathy. She carried out her research under the guidance of Dr.VR.Muthukkaruppan during 2004-2010. Dr. P. Kaliraj –Dean, Alagappa College of Technology campus, Anna University was the examiner for the VIVA-VOCE examination.

 

Going Beyond the Call of Duty

Towards the end of the Instruments maintenance courses conducted at Aravind, the trainees are sent to another hospital for an instruments maintenance camp which usually provides them work experience outside the training centre in Madurai. The trainees of the 73rd instruments maintenance course had a very unique opportunity of having such a camp at Aravind - Salem where they involved themselves in installing and commissioning the various instruments of the new hospital prior to the inauguration on November 27. Besides carrying out their task, they rose to the occasion and actively participated in the arrangements for the inauguration of the hospital including stage setting for the event.

  A 4 day orientation programme arranged for the newly selected supervisors and tutors aimed to orient them on their new role and responsibilities. Dr. R. Venkatesh, Dr. K. Veena, Dr. S. Kavitha and Mr. Vengadesan, handled sessions during the programme which helped the participants understand their roles, responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. The orientation programme ended up with the presentation of action plan by the newly selected supervisors and tutors.

Retention award of Rs.20,000/- was distributed to the MLOPs who successfully completed five years of their service at Aravind Eye Hospital-Pondicherry. A formal meeting was organized and the Fixed Deposit certificates were distributed by Dr. R.Venkatesh, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. K. Thiruvenkatakrishnan, Chief-Cornea Clinic, Dr. K. Veena, MLOP-Incharge and Dr. Badrinath, Chief – IOL Consultant. Sr.Vasanthi thanked the management on behalf of all the MLOPs, Sr. Selvarani, nursing superintendent, MLOP supervisors and tutors attended the function. Ms. Sumathi, Manager- HR, facilitated the programme.

  Dr. Naresh Babu, Medical Officer, Retina and Vitreous Services, Aravind - Madurai and Mr. Suresh Kumar, faculty - LAICO visited Sankar Foundation, Vizag and Vivekananda Mission Ashram Netra Niramay Niketan as part of evaluating the Diabetic Retinopathy Project supported by Sightsavers International.

LAICO team carried out the following needs assessment visits as part of the capacity building programme for eye hospitals supported by SSI: - LEPRA India, Orissa (November 21 – 23) and Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, Jharkand (November 24 – 26): by Dr. Manju Pillai,
Ms. Sashipriya and Mr. Mohammad Gowth.
- Suraj Eye Hospital, Nagpur (November 21 – 23) and Mahatme Eye Bank and Eye Hospital, Nagpur (November 23 – 25): by Dr. Ilango and Mr. Sanil
- Sri Sankara Eye Hospital, Chennai: by Mr.R.D.Thulasiraj,   Dr.R.Venkatesh and Ms.Dhivya Ramasamy, December 2 – 4
- Barmer Jan Seva Samiti Hospital, Barmer, Rajasthan (December 8 – 10) and Shri Jagdamba Charitable Eye Hospital, Shri Ganganagar, Rajasthan (December 8 – 10): by Mr. Ganesh Babu and Dr. Ramakrishna.

Follow up visits were made to the following hospitals as part of the IAPB – Capacity Building Grant Fund Programme:
- Fathima Eye Hospital, Gorakhpur (December 7 – 10):
Mr. R. Meenakshi Sundaram and Dr. Praveen Subudhi
- Kishoreganj Eye Hospital, Bangladesh (December 11-14): Dr.D.Datta and Mr. Sanil Joseph.

Following his receiving the CREST Award, Dr. Sundaresan, visited Centre for Vision and Vascular Science (CVVS), Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, during September 1 – November 30 and worked with Dr. Colin E. Willoughby, senior lecturer and consultant ophthalmic surgeon and Dr. David Simpson, senior lecturer. During the three month period he got an opportunity to learn more on molecular genetics of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma and Keratoconus using state-of-the-art high throughput sequencing technology - Ion Torrent.

This technology will be implemented at Aravind Medical Research Foundationin near future for the screening of genes of inherited eye diseases. He discussed with Dr. Astrid Fletcher and Dr. Usha Chakravarthy the ongoing INDEYE project on molecular genetics of cataract and AMD at Aravind Medical Research Foundation.

 

Course title	Training Centre	Total Number Trained as on October 2011	Enrollments for November 2011
Long Term Courses - For Ophthalmologists
Fellowship in Cornea	Madurai	40	1
	Coimbatore	23	0
	Pondicherry	3	0
Fellowship in Paediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus	Madurai	57	2
	Tirunelveli	2	0
	Coimbatore	18	0
	Pondicherry	1	0
Short Term Courses - For Ophthalmologists
Diagnosis and Management of Glaucoma	Madurai	105	1
	Tirunelveli	130	2
	Coimbatore	98	0
	Pondicherry	2	0
IOL Microsurgery	Madurai	704	1
	Tirunelveli	276	0
	Coimbatore	211	0
	Pondicherry	11	0
Phacoemulsification	Madurai	137	1
	Tirunelveli	75	0
	Coimbatore	93	0
	Pondicherry	17	1
Small Incision Cataract Surgery	Madurai	161	1
	Tirunelveli	108	1
	Coimbatore	124	0
	Pondicherry	22	0
	Theni	1	0
Lasers in Diabetic Retinopathy	Madurai	253	1
	Coimbatore	244	0
	Pondicherry	3	0
Management of Retinopathy of Prematurity and Paediatric Retinal Disorders	Coimbatore	5	1
Instrument Maintenance - For Technicians	Madurai	414	5
Management Courses
Community Outreach & Social Marketing of Eye Care Services	LAICO	253	5

 

• J PEDIATR OPHTHALMOL STRABISMUS 2011 NOV 1;48(6):341-6.
  Anand Kumar, Sashikant Shetty, Vijayalakshmi P, Hertle RW
  - Improvement in visual acuity following surgery for correction of head posture in infantile nystagmus syndrome.article view
• INT J INFECT DIS. 2011 NOV 16. [Epub]
  Shukla J, Saxena D, Rathinam S, Lalitha P, Joseph CR, Sharma S, Soni M, Rao PV, Parida M.
  - Molecular detection and characterization of West Nile virus associated with multifocal retinitis in patients from southern India. article view
• INDIAN J MED MICROBIOL 2011 :29; 444-445
  Vaishnavi, B; Gowri Priya, C; Rathinam, Sivakumar R
  - Spectrum of Leptospira species identified in patients with leptospiral uveitis in an ophthalmological institute in South India article view
• INT J RES PHARM SCI VOL: 2(4) 2011 P.579-584
  Vijayakumar, R; Venkatesa Kannan, V; Manoharan, C
  - Molecular diagnosis of pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination in ophthalmic viscosurgical devices.
• ASIAN J PHARM HEA SCI VOL: 1(4) 2011 OCT.-DEC. P. 167-170
  Vijaya Kumar, R; Venkatesa Kannan, V; Manoharan, C
  Minimum inhibitory concentration determination of chlorhexidine gluconate against pharmaceutical clean room fungal isolates article view
• Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2011 Dec 3.
  Jeyalakshmi S,  Haripriya A, Muthukkaruppan V, Kaufman PL, Tian B. 
  - Cytoskeletal drugs prevent posterior capsular opacification in human lens capsule in vitro article view
• Br J Ophthalmol 2011;95:1612-1613 
  Catherine E Oldenburg, Aileen Sy, Muthiah Srinivasan, Christine M Toutain-Kidd, Jeena Mascarenhas, Meenakshi Ravindran, Revathi Rajaraman, Elizabeth J Esterberg, Jaya D Chidambaram, Nisha R Acharya, Thomas M Lietman, Michael E Zegans
  - Pre-existing blindness in a cohort of patients with bacterial keratitis article view
• Asian J Ophthalmol. 2011;12:187-8.
  Prateek Agarwal, Gopal Gaurav Devendra, Shashikant Shetty, Krishna Das, Perumalsamy Vijayalakshmi, Rajamani Muralidhar
  - Central corneal thickness – How should we Interpret the findings in children? article view

Beautiful hand crafted rosewood furniture, each piece unique and original. Exquisite hand woven Pashmina shawls.

Gold embroidery on Banarasi saris, made by artisans, the kantha stich work on kantha saris, tie and dye patterns on Bandhani suits.

Hand crafted items always come at a cost; as the sales woman at the designer boutique will let you know , "Madam, these are all 100% handmade, we source them from the village artisans, it is expensive but it is a work of art and art is priceless." Try and haggle with them, ask for a little 'discount' and they disdainfully point you towards the more pedantic 'machine made items'.

So what happens when you have the artistry of handmade 'designer ness' applied to the rigid demands of medical equipment manufacturing?

Recently I happened to visit the aurolab manufacturing unit. As an ophthalmologist, one of the commonest operations done is the cataract surgery. The average time taken for an SICS being 15-20 minutes, and in a camp operation the cataract surgery takes as little as 4 minutes to finish! Under these conditions, very little thought is spared to the artificial lens that we implant.

I always took for granted that the lenses are made in a machine, a machine checks for defects and a regular factory product is prepared. Efficient and clinical, much like the surgeries itself.

One of the most popular implanted lenses are the aurolab lenses, as they are of a high quality and yet economical. That in itself was commendable and all us doctors were excited to finally visit the manufacturing plant.

What took us by surprise was the large amount of ‘human effort’ that went into the manufacturing.

The lens optic is cut, then checked, washed, then checked again, polished, then checked again, all by the female workers. It seemed like a very high tech cottage industry.
We use 10.0 sutures made by aurolab too. The suture is as thin as a strand of hair. Personally I’d say I used to bother more of my losing hair, than the sutures we used to lose on the OT drapes. Each single fine thread is spatulated to it’s needle, and checked for tensile strength by the workers. Each single suture is handled by a human being! I don’t know why but I always imagined it to be machine made. Suddenly losing a single suture, or mishandling them seemed such a shame, almost as sad as losing the hair on my head.

The young women from the surrounding villages who make up almost 90% of the work staff here embody the true spirit of women empowerment. With almost 7000 lenses made every day, with export to over 100 countries, it was truly; by the people, for the people, to the people.

The whole Aurolab experience reminded me of the tea and coffee advertisements on television. A girl is sipping tea, and is transported to the tea plantations where women are plucking 'Taazi chai ki patiya', or a man is drinking coffee, and is transported to Columbia where exotic women are grinding the coffee beans. The Human experience, the simple act of sipping tea is portrayed as a communication with the Assamese women plucking Oolong tea leaves amongst the crisp clean air of the tea plantations. Simple everyday events change into a much more gratifying experience.

Next time, I operate I have this feeling that I might experience this form of transportation to Aurolab as well.

- Dr. Kuheli Bhattacharya

 

November - 2011
Hospitals	Madurai	Theni	Tirunelveli	Coimbatore	Pondicherry	Dindigul	Thirupur	Total
HOSPITAL OUT-PATIENT VISITS
Paying (New & Review)	39,156	5,987	19,669	27,501	17,289	4,726	2,878	117,206
Free (Direct walk-in)	11,080	1,800	5,151	9,226	5,839	4	-	33,100
OUTREACH OUT PATIENTS
Regular Eye Camps	5,893	1,484	4,715	7,521	4,755	-	-	24,368
Diabetic Retinopathy camps	1,583	528	510	2,374	424	-	-	5,419
Refraction Camps	969	183	648	1,536	142	-	-	3,478
Mobile Refraction Unit	-	824	-	-	-	-	-	824
School Screening camps	1,616	230	9,001	13,489	16,561	-	-	40,897
ICDS Children	-	-	586	-	-	-	-	586
Paediatric Camps	409	342	-	-	-	-	-	751
Vision Centres	7,211	3,880	3,225	2,350	1,603	-	416	18,685
Community Eye Clinics	3,211	1,608	3,688	-	-	-	-	8,507
Total OP Examinations	71,128	16,866	47,193	63,997	46,613	4,730	3,294	253,821
SURGERIES
Paying	2,519	383	1,096	1,464	761	142	92	6,457
Free (Direct)	1,999	236	603	1,621	491	29	87	5,066
Camp	1,658	161	1,085	1,696	1,082	-	-	5,682
Total Surgeries	6,176	780	2,784	4,781	2,334	171	179	17,205