EYE BANK TRAINING PROGRAM
Eye Bank Training Program was held from July 20 to August 20. Two trainees one from Maharashtra and other from Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital, Kolkata attended the programme. Eye Bank Manager Training Program was held from August 6-12, Mr. Abhishek Kumar Singh attended the course. Eye Bank Technician Training was held from August 6 to September 5, four members attended this course. Eye Bank Grief Counsellor Training was held from August 6-23, Mr. Himadri Bhattacharya attended the course.



CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION CAMERA
The use of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) as a reader for persons with low vision is well known. Aravinds’ Instrument Maintenance Lab is dispensing a CCTV camera that could be connected with any domestic TV set for reading texts. Some time back one of our patients (Mr.A.K.Subramanian, Senior General Manager of a company in Bangalore) who is using the camera visited the department and said that he and his son have made an adapter to use his laptop for this purpose instead of a TV receiver as reader and he is using it. He even gave a demonstration of his set in the department during one of his visits. Now the lab has achieved the same in the department and the patients with low vision can have the knowledge of how using their laptops for reading purpose.

CME FOR MRD STAFF – ‘TRAINING OF TRAINERS'
Aravind-Madurai, August 2-3
A total of 16 staff members from all Aravind Eye Hospitals attended the training Programme held at Aravind-Madurai. The main objective of the workshop was to upgrade and standardise the teaching methodology to all the senior staff of Medical Records with the guidance of Medical Records Manual. Dr. G. Natchiar gave the special address followed by Dr. Usha Kim delivered the Keynote address. In order to assess the participant’s level of understanding Mr. Raja Kumar conducted a pre and post test which proved that the CME was very useful. At the end of the second day during the valedictory function Dr. Ramakrishnan addressed the participants and gave a CD of the whole session to the in charge of all the hospitals. This CME programme has paved a way to become more efficient in the field of Medical Records.

GUEST LECTURE – PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Aravind-Tirunelveli, August 7
Mr.R.Ganesan, Manager, DCW was invited as Guest Speaker to deliver a lecture on “Personality Development” on August 7. Mr.Ganesan has done NLP Program (Neuro Linguistic Program), a Reiki master and has also attended many courses on counselling. MLOP new recruits, Nursing Superintendent and Supervisor and Tutors attended the session. With his sense of humor, Mr.Ganesan made the session so interesting and enjoyable.




HOUSE KEEPING EXHIBITION
Aravind- Coimbatore, August 8-9
The house-keeping department conducted an exhibition from August 8-9, 2008 which was visited by of patients, their attendants and hospital staff. Around 150 people attended the exhibition which was appreciated by all.






COUNSELLING DEPARTMENT EXHIBITION
Aravind-Coimbatore, August 8-9
Counselling department conducted a two-day exhibition to create awareness about common eye diseases among patients. Information charts, posters, visual aids were displayed to create awareness about common eye diseases. A total of 263 people including staff and patients visited the exhibition and 15 people registered for eye donation in the exhibition. Many of them suggested conducting this kind of informative exhibition during the whole year.



TRIP TO COURTALLAM
Aravind-Tirunelveli, August 13
MLOPs and Administrative staff members who have completed one and two years of service at Aravind Eye Hospital were taken on a half a day tour to courtallam on August 13. A total of 120 members divided into two batches visited courtallam. First batch visited courtallam in the morning and second batch visited in the afternoon. They visited main falls, old falls and five falls. All the staff members had a wonderful splash in the water falls and enjoyed their tour.




INPATIENT DEPARTMENT EXHIBITION
Aravind-Madurai, August 29-30
Inpatient department exhibition was held at Aravind-Madurai from August 29-30. Charts on inpatient facilities in the free and main hospitals and posters on different eye diseases were displayed. The screening of a video on diseases like cataract, childhood blindness and corneal infections was really informative to the visitors. Some commonly used apparatuses like Sphygmomanometer; Nebulizer etc were also kept on display.

ORBIS CONFERENCE
Children Hospital, Guangzhou, China, July 13-18
Dr. Kuldeep Srivastava, CMO, IGEHRC, Lucknow participated in the ORBIS conference in China to conduct a Hospital Based Program on Strabismus from July 13-18. During his visit, he delivered lectures, demonstrated surgical procedures and supervised surgeries.







VII EYE ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
World Trade Centre, Mumbai, August 21-24
Dr. Aloy Majumdar, Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital & Research Centre, Lucknow attended The EYEADVANCE 2008 Conference held at World Trade Centre, Mumbai by the International Academy for Advances in Ophthalmology. He presented two papers relating to the use of Intracameral Mitomycin-C in Absolute Glaucoma & Double Blind trial of Azelastine versus Cyclosporin A in Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis. Dr. Aloy also moderated a session in Oculoplastic Surgery. First Day was devoted to live Surgeries by the National & International faculty including Phacoemulsification procedures Standard, variations, difficult cases, complication management; Macular Hole surgeries. The rest of the days were dedicated to the various advances in Ocular Pathology and Surgery.