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News & Events
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CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE ANNUAL MEETING
Clinton Global Initiative, New York, USA, September 21-26
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Mr. R. D. Thulasiraj, Executive Director, LAICO along with Ms. Suzane Gilbert attended the annual meeting of Clinton Global Initiative, USA, from September 21-26, he presented a project that proposes a Global Initiative to prevent loss of vision due to diabetes. The meeting was attended by the group of the world’s most distinguished leaders from government, business, and civil society to examine today's most pressing global challenges and transform the awareness into tangible action.
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Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Project Details
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- Diabetes mellitus currently affects 246 million people worldwide and is estimated to increase to a staggering 380 million by the year 2025.
- Eyes are the most commonly affected organ by diabetes, which results in Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), a condition that could lead to permanent vision loss and is symptom-less in its early stages.
- It is estimated that more than 2.5 million people worldwide are affected by diabetic retinopathy and the majority of them will be in the productive age group of 20 – 65 years.
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Early diagnosis and treatment is the only way to prevent losing vision or going blind permanently. Though all diabetics require regular monitoring for diabetic retinopathy, only a very small proportion of the “known diabetics” receive a comprehensive eye examination. In this context, the critical challenges are:
- Diagnosing “known diabetic patients” for DR, given the fact that physicians/diabetologists are the primary contact
- Lack of availability of services to carry out required diagnosis and treatment which may be due to unavailability of trained human resources and the cost of setting up infrastructure
- Compliance to regular follow-up
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- Aravind commits to develop and implement a smart IT-enabled service delivery model that would enable developing countries to effectively manage the rapidly increasing incidence of diabetic retinopathy.
This initiative aims to prevent blindness due to diabetic retinopathy cases in specific target areas in Asia and Africa. This will be done by developing physician/diabetologist centers with retinal imaging capabilities that are remotely diagnosed by Aravind.
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As part of this commitment, Aravind is proposing a new developmental programme that involves
- Diabetic/Physician Centres (DR screening centre)
- Ophthalmic centres (local service provider)
- Aravind Eye care System (Resource centre)
This initiative proposes:
- Setting up a remote diagnostic system between the diabetic centers and Aravind, where Aravind will provide expert consultation about the condition of diabetic retinopathy and ensure patient follow-up;
- Creating access to eye care by linking these diabetic centers with the local eye hospitals for interventions like laser procedure.
- Developing required human resources both for the ophthalmic set up and Physician/diabetic centres.
- This process involves identification of diabetic/physician centres that has good patient traffic and ophthalmic centres locally with the support of respective International NGOs. With the funds that will be raised through this commitment process, diabetic centres will be equipped with fundus imaging equipment, computer with the patient information, image capture software and broadband connectivity.
- Ophthalmic centres will be equipped with Green laser equipment that will be supplied.
This model offers a win-win model for everyone involved
- Patients: Availing timely comprehensive eye care services at reduced costs
- Diabetologists/Physicians: Providing enhanced quality of services with better patient compliance and potential revenue flow
- Ophthalmologists: Higher patient flow, increased capacity to manage DR services with potential revenue flow
- Aravind Eye Hospitals: Mission accomplishment by building capacity globally.
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