April - June 2008 - LV Prasad Eye Institute

Village VisionInternational Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye careB. Education and TrainingDiploma in Eye Health Management courseThe 1-year Diploma in Eye Health Management course hasbeen restructured to ensure greater academic as well asprofessional rigor. The senior faculty of both the clinical andsupportive services departments were involved in the process.Applications were invited for the current year. A Training ofTrainers (TOT) program has been designed to enable theteachers to teach the course effectively. The course will beformally launched on August 1, 2008.Training of Trainers of SCOJO Vision EntrepreneursA program for Training of Trainers of SCOJO Vision Entrepreneursin integrated community eye care was conducted at ICARE –LVPEI on May 21, 2008. A total of 12 district coordinators,including Mr Graham Macmillan, Senior Director, Mr AruneshSing, India Country Director, Mr Vipin Sharma, Manager –Programs and Operations, and Mr Maruti Ram Kesiraju, VEChannel Manager, participated in the program.Trainers workshop for Vision Technician CourseUnder the Standard Chartered Bank’s ‘Seeing is Believing’project, representatives from eye institutes in India – L V PrasadEye Institute, Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, Venu Eye Institute,Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai –participated in an orientation workshop for trainers of the VisionTechnician course from June 16-17, 2008.CEC & CBR Training ProgramsICARE conducted a community eye care and community basedrehabilitation field workers training program from June 23-28,2008. A total of 34 field staff from 7 satellite centres of LVPEI(Mudhole, Adilabad, Thoodukurthy, Karamchedu, Markapur,Nellore and Madanapally) participated in the program held atKismatpur campus.C. ResearchImpact assessment studyThe ongoing ‘Impact of correction of refractive errors amongchildren aged 10 to 15 years on activity based performance andother vision based functions’ study has completed its baselinedata collection at all its study locations. A barrier study datacollection was done from children who have not boughtspectacles even a month after being prescribed spectacles. Allthese child subjects were provided spectacles free of cost.Further, data on the one-month impact after using spectacleswas also collected. The project members conducted a sensitivityand specificity analysis of the teachers’ screening outcomewith the vision technicians screening. This project is supportedby Vision CRC, Australia.Sight for Kids‘Sight for Kids’ is a collaborative child eye health project forchildren between 5 and 9 years, supported by Johnson &Johnson, Lions International, L V Prasad Eye Institute and LionsEye Hospitals of Greater Hyderabad. During this quarter, LVPEIinitiated the production of a revised teacher’s manual, eyehealth posters in Telugu, monitoring and evaluating tools, anda redesigned screening protocol. In addition, the partneringeye hospitals staff were trained on how to document theactivities.Pediatric Ophthalmology Learning and Training Centre(POLTC)Under this joint ORBIS International – L V Prasad Eye Instituteinitiative training of the first batch of pediatric eye care teamswas completed by the end of March 2008. Training of thesecond and third batches is in progress. A total of 3,764 childrenwere screened at the community level and 11,218 at thesecondary and tertiary levels. Of these, 943 children wereexamined under anesthesia, 425 children were prescribedspectacles and 2,189 surgeries were performed. Traineesunder the project were involved in presentations and researchactivities. They were also exposed to rural satellite centres andvision centres at Mahabubnagar district.Diabetes Prevention Program in Prakasam districtTill date training has been given to 595 children and 17 teachersin 2 schools of 2 villages in 2 mandals of Prakasam district. TillJune 2008 each trained child has provided health educationand screened 3,107 families with 10,880 persons for diabetes.Members of 6,625 self-help groups were given health educationabout diabetes. A total of 15,599 persons at risk for diabeteswere screened for blood and urine sugar; of them 1,520 weresuspected to have diabetes. A refresher training program washeld in June 2008 for training all vision technicians in MarkapurService Centres in screening for blood sugar.Sight First – 1141The 3-year Lions – L V Prasad Eye Institute Capacity DevelopmentProject for Management of Diabetic Eye Disease in AndhraPradesh, which started in August 2005, will build the capacityof Lions and Lions affiliated eye hospitals (including a satellitehospital of L V Prasad Eye Institute) to comprehensively dealwith the problem of diabetic eye disease. A project partnersorientation meeting was held on April 18, 2008. A nationalseminar on diabetic retinopathy has been planned for October3-4, 2008. The project will end by July 31, 2008.D. Community Eye Health JournalThe seventeenth issue of the ‘Community Eye Health Journal’with Indian supplement, published under the aegis of theVISION 2020 Indian Forum, was dispatched to 4935 readers allover the country and to neighboring countries includingPakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Bangladesh, Malasiya,Ghana and the Sultanate of Oman.15