| Inside | |
| Special Events | |
| Awards & Accolades | |
| Courses and Training Programmes at Aravind | |
| Conferences Attended Elsewhere | |
| Other News & Events | |
| Consultancy & Capacity Building | |
| Training Programmes | |
| Aurolab News | |
| Visitors & Volunteers | |
| Monthly Patient Statistics | |
| Archives | |
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| Aravind News Team | |
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Dear Readers, |
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WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATIONS AT ARAVIND EYE HOSPITALS
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| Awards & Accolades | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR”AWARD TO MR. R. D. THULASIRAJ The Aravind Eye Care System (AECS) won one more laurel when Modern Medicare Excellence Awards 2007 were presented in Mumbai on March 14, 2008. Mr. R. D. Thulasiraj, Executive Director, LAICO has been chosen as the ‘ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR’. The awards were introduced last year by GE Healthcare in association with Info India to honour individuals and institutions for their outstanding contributions to healthcare. 
CONGRATULATIONS TO Ms. ARPITHA PARTHASARATHY
Ms. Arpitha Parthasarathy has been declared to have qualified herself for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) for her research on“Identification, Characterization, Enrichment and in vitro maintenance of Human Corneal Epithelial Stem Cells”. She has been a Research Scholar from 2001 -2008 under the guidance of Dr.VR.Muthukkaruppan, Director - Research, Aravind Medical Research Foundation. |
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VALEDICTORY FUNCTION OF 56th INSTRUMENTS MAINTENANCE COURSE
Aravind-Madurai, March 13 
Valedictory function of 56th Instruments Maintenance Course was held at Instruments Maintenance department on March 13. Dr. Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Aurolab was the Chairperson. Mr. Yemon Chambers, Engineer, Ingeneus, manufactures of Lasers Australia distributed the certificates and the tools kit to the trainees. Of the five graduating trainees one sponsored by Light for the World, Austria, was from Beria, Mozambique (East Africa); one sponsored by the Impact Foundation of Bangladesh was from one of the floating hospitals there. Three were from different parts of India including one from one of our Managed Eye Hospitals in Amethi (UP).
Mrs. D. Ganga was the Chief Instructor of the course. With this the total number of trainees who have undergone the course stands at 329 including 111 from 29 developing countries. 53 of the 329 were women including 10 from 4 developing countries. 
OUTPATIENTS EXHIBITION
Aravind-Puducherry, March 20-21 OP Exhibition was held at Aravind-Puducherry from March 20-21 by the OutP Department. Refraction, General OP, Speciality clinics took part in the Exhibition. Various charts and aids were displayed to provide information and to create awareness about the common eye diseases. A total of 164 patients and 64 staff members visited the exhibition. 
ARAVIND MANAGED EYE CARE SERVICES RETREAT
LAICO, March 21-22 AMECS Retreat was held at LAICO from March 21-22. A total of 12 members participated in the Retreat. The main purpose of the visit was, to document all the processes involved in establishing a managed care hospital. Various topics were discussed regarding AMECS Vision, Aravind values and culture in managed care, key operational areas of AMECS, setting up a hospital infrastructure, equipment & IT planning. Outcome of the workshop - Developed broad areas to be worked on establishing a hospital - Collected base line data from resource group - Identified areas to be strengthened further 
VALEDICTORY FUNCTION
Aravind-Madurai, March 28 Valedictory function for Optical Dispensing and Ocularist trainees was held at Aravind-Madurai. Dr.Ilango Chief – Low Vision Clinic distributed certificates to six optical dispensing trainees from India and Africa. Ms.Mahalakshmi, Manager – Ocular prosthetics Centre distributed the Certificates to the Ocularist trainees. NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON POLICY ISSUES IN DISABILITY INTERVENTION Gandhigram University, March 28 Dr.K.Ilango, Medical Officer, Low Vision Clinic participated in the National Workshop held at Gandhigram University on Policy Issues in Disability Intervention. He spoke as a resource person on issues relating to visual impairment and change in policy implications and chaired group discussions on issues relating to low vision. ORIENTATION TRAINING PROGRAMME LAICO, March 31- April 4 Orientation Training Programme was held for the 3rd Batch of Supervisors and Tutors from March 31 to April 4. The main objective of the Programme was to strengthen the newly selected Supervisors and Tutors with required knowledge, skill and attitude for performing their new role effectively and efficiently. A total of 13 members attended the training Programme. |
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DELHI OPHTHALMOLOGY SOCIETY
Delhi,March 28 Dr.Vipul Arora won the Dr. A.C. Aggarwal Trophy award for the best paper on “A Comparative study of External and Trans Canalicular Dacryocystorhinostomy” Dr.Vipul Arora, Dr.Usha Kim, Dr.Hadi Khazaei - Prevention is better than cure: Recurrence in OSSN (Ocular surface squamous Neoplasia) Dr.Haripriya participated in the Live Surgery at Delhi Ophthalmology Society Meeting. Dr.R.Ramakrishnan, CMO Aravind-Tirunelveli attended the Delhi Ophthalmological Society Meeting at Delhi from March 28-30. The Key note address was given by him on the following topics - Primary Congenital Glaucoma - Update on Glaucoma Dr. Ramakrishnan spoke on the following topic - Risk factors for prevention of OHT and POAG And he participated as the panel members for discussion on “Investigations and Management of Glaucoma”. GLAUCOMA UPDATE L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Visakapatnam, March 8-9 Dr.R.Ramakrishnan, CMO Aravind-Tirunelveli attended "Glaucoma Update" at L.V.Prasad Eye Institute, Visakapatanam on March 8-9. - Glaucoma detecting devices - Non-penetrating Glaucoma surgeries. VISIT TO GRAMEEN EYE HOSPITAL Grameen Eye Hospital, Bogra, Bangladesh, March 20 Mr. R.D. Thulasiraj, Executive Director visited Grameen Eye Hospital, on March 20, to see the facilities and discuss with the management and staff of the hospital IAPB BUSINESS PLAN MEETING Chittagong, March 21-22 Mr. R.D. Thulasiraj attended IAPB Business Plan meeting at Chittagong from March 21 - 22. |
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A NEW SYSTEM OF READING MATERIALS FOR LOW VISION PATIENTS
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| Consultancy & Capacity Building | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEEDS ASSESSMENT VISIT
Ethiopia, February 24-March 4
Dr. Narendran, CMO, Aravind-Coimbatore, Dr.Raguram, MO, Aravind-coimbatore, Ms.Sashipriya, Faculty, Mr.Vasantha Kumar, Faculty-LAICO visited Ethiopia from February 24 - March 4. The visit was in response to the initiative from “Right to Sight”, Ireland. The purpose of the visit was to do Needs Assessment in the following hospitals - Grarbet Tehadiso Mahber - Fitsum Birhan Eye Centre - Quiha Zonal Hospital 
Rwanda, March 5-13
Mr.R.D.Thulasiraj, Executive Director, LAICO, Dr.Mahesh Kumar, Aravind-Madurai, Ms.Sashipriya, Faculty Mr.Kumar, Faculty-LAICO visited Rwanda from March 5-13. The visit was in response to the initiative and joint invitation from “Right to Sight”, Ireland and the Ministry of Health, Rwanda. The purpose of the visit was - Capacity Building of University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK). As a first step the team undertook the needs assessment visit from March 6-7, 2008 - To gain first hand understanding of the functioning of the eye department, its current issues, challenges and opportunities - To discuss with the eye department and the Director General of the Hospital, and come up with possible solutions - lay out the next steps to make the solutions a reality. From March 10-12, the planning workshop was held for designing Rwandan eye care plan for 2008-2012. There were representations from International NGOs, consultants, eye care institutions, Ministry of Health-Rwanda. The workshop for the National Plan covered the following areas - Enabling environment for better eye care service delivery - Operational planning for the implementation of the activities. |
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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
Aurolab, March 8 International Women’s day was celebrated in Aurolab on March 8, 2008. Competitions like Poster making and Rangoli were conducted for the staff members on the occassion. Totally fourteen groups participated in the Rangoli competition and eight groups participated in the Poster making competition. The judge was invited from Mahatma School and she distributed prizes to the winners. DOS ANNUAL CONFERENCE New Delhi, March 28-30 Aurolab participated in the 59th Annual Conference of Delhi Ophthalmological Society held at Hotel Ashok - Samrat Complex, New Delhi from March 28 - 30, 2008. Aurolab took this opportunity to promote its new products like “Aurogel” – High Quality Viscoelastic Solution and “Reti Eye” – A tool to practice Indirect Ophthalmoscopy and Photocoagulation and strongly supported its existing products to the ophthalmic society. Mr. Sivanand, Mr. Padmanabhan, Mr. Thiyagarajan, Area Development Manager of Delhi and neighboring regions, and dealer at Delhi represented Aurolab in the trade show. 
ISO CERTIFICATION
The Quality System Certification audit was conducted from 28th February to 1st March, 2008 by UL India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. As a result of it, Aurolab has received the ISO 9001:2000 & ISO 13485:2003 certifications for their quality system in the new facility. |
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- Dr. Suranjan Bhattachari and his team from CMC Vellore, India visited Aravind-Madurai on March 1, 2008 to learn Aravind Eye Care System’s best practices in financial management and use of PDAs.
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Aravind-Madurai
Aravind-Tirunelveli
World Glaucoma Day was observed at Aravind-Coimbatore from March 1-8, 2008. As part of it, various programmes like awareness campaigns for patients and hospital workers and press meet were conducted. A live interview with Dr P. Sathyan, Glaucoma specialist was telecasted by UTV, Kalaignar TV, Mega TV and other TV channels. A live programme by Dr. P. Sathyan on Glaucoma awareness was broadcasted in All India Radio and Rainbow FM. 20,000 calendars describing the symptoms and risks of Glaucoma were distributed in all public places. A webpage designed exclusively for Glaucoma, THE AGE was launched by Dr Namperumalsamy, Chairman AECS. A free family glaucoma screening campaign was conducted in which a total of 116 patients attended and 16 patients were diagnosed as having Glaucoma.
The first World Glaucoma Day was celebrated at Aravind-Tirunelveli on March 6, 2008. A glaucoma screening camp was organized in the hospital premises on March 9. The response was so encouraging that 232 outpatients were screened on that day.
World Glaucoma Day was celebrated at Aravind-Puducherry on March 8. Glaucoma awareness banner was displayed at 15 places (Pondicherry, cuddalore, Villupuram) for one week. Press meeting was conducted on March 4 and there was a release about the World Glaucoma Day in Newspapers.
The use of inexpensive CCTV camera (closed circuit camera) connected to a domestic TV receiver to get a magnified picture of reading materials for the benefit of persons with low vision is well known. The Instruments Maintenance Department has been building such systems and the Low Vision Unit of the hospital has been dispensing it to our low vision patients since 2002. We have dispensed nearly 180 units so far. Recently Miss N. Kasthuri of the department has made an innovation and produced a set up using which a low vision patient can write on a note pad and read comfortably on a TV receiver what is written on the note pad. A demonstration of the set up was given to Doctors in the Low Vision Clinic and the unit. The set up will also be made available to the patients in due course.
Five employees, Ms. Murukeswari, Operation Theater, Ms. Mallika, Ms. Vijaya Rani, outpatient department, Ms. Chitra, Housekeeping, and Ms. Mallika, Counsellor, from Aravind Eye Hospital visited Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital at Amethi.
MADURAI: “There are many without an opportunity to get into a college, but you are all fortunate to have got educated in a prestigious institution such as the Thiagarajar College, for which you are all indebted to your parents, faculty and the society which gave you the opportunity to become graduates. Likewise, at some point of time in your life, you have to give back to the society. Which has given you the opportunity to study,” said
Dr. P. Namperumalsamy, Chairman, Aravind Eye Care System. Addressing the 25th annual convocation of Thiagarajar College here. Dr. Namperumalsamy emphasised the important facet of being positive and confident to overcome any hindrance towards attaining objectives, which should also be mutually beneficial to the individual as well as the society.
MADURAI: The ‘power of youth’ embedded with vigour and vitality and the role of colleges in nurturing youngsters’ abilities to carve them as promising citizens were emphasised at the annual convocation of American College.
