A genius heightened in his body’s cells That knew the meaning of his fate-hedged works Akin to the march of unaccomplished Powers Beyond life’s arc in spirit’s immensities. Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude, A demi-god shaping the lives of men: One soul’s ambition lifted up the race; A Power worked but none knew whence it came. The universal strengths were linked with his; Filling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths, He drew the energies that transmute an age. Immeasureable by the common look, He made great dreams a mould for coming things And cast his deeds like bronze to front the years. His walk through Time outstripped the human stride. Lonely his days and splendid like the sun’s. - Sri Aurobindo ‘Savitri’ Book One, Canto Three 1 2 3 CONTENTS 2005 in Perspective . . . impacting lives 6 Aravind - Madurai 10 Aravind - Theni 12 Aravind - Tirunelveli 14 Aravind - Coimbatore 16 Aravind - Pondicherry 18 Managed Eye Hospitals 20 Performance 2005 22 Community Outreach 24 Diabetic Retinopathy Initiatives 27 Awards & Accolades 31 Education and Training Programmes 33 Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology 42 Aravind Tele-Ophthalmology Network 60 Information Technology (IT) & Systems 61 Human Resource Development Department 63 Aravind Communications 65 Aravind Medical Research Foundation 66 Eye Banks 69 Aurolab 71 Partners in Service 78 Trustees and Staff 82 Photo Credits: Isakki Raja, Aravind-Tirunelveli Jeyakrishnan, Aravind-Madurai Mike Myers, USA Naushad, Aravind-Pondicherry Rajkumar, Aravind-Madurai Sonesh Surana, USA Thirunavukkarasu, Sigma Stills Relay Installation at Ambasamudram 4 True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortune than ourselves but from realising our kinship with all beings. - Pema Chodron 5 2005 IN PERSPECTIVE ….. IMPACTING LIVES As individuals and institutions the ultimate purpose is to contribute in OUTPATIENTVISITS(1976-2005) positive ways to human welfare. There are different ways to do this, and at Aravind the chosen way is to impact people’s lives by providing affordable, high quality eye care. Having been working in this field for thirty years, Aravind as an organisation feels responsible; not just for doing good work but also for ensuring to really make a difference where it matters. This approach has led the organisation to several new projects, some of them directly providing services and others with a more indirect impact. SURGERIES(1976-2005) In 2005, across all Aravind Eye Hospitals, 1,721,898 outpatient visits were handled, while 247,235 surgical and laser procedures were performed. Sustainable Eye Care Close to Home . . . More Vision Centres and Community Eye Clinics Eye camps have been productive as a strategy for bringing in patients, and they account for 437,224 patients examined and 97,292 patients operated on in 2005. But when the recent studies showed the limited impact of these camps in reaching all those in need, Aravind decided to deploy additional strategies to deepen the reach into the community in a sustainable way. This decision led to the expansion of the network of Vision Centres with the inauguration of the third centre in Bodinaickanur and two more being planned at Chinnamanur and At the inauguration of the Vision Periyakulam. The learning from the current network is laying the Centre at Bodinaickanur foundation for rapidly scaling up the network of Vision Centres to over 50 in the next few years. As an extension of the same strategy, the second Community Eye Clinic was inaugurated at Thirumangalam near Madurai. These centres will actively reach out to their communi- ties and over a period of time ensure that everyone in need of eye care is reached and served in a sustainable manner. Building up Capacities . . . For over a decade, Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO) has engaged in the process of capacity building. Till date it has partnered with 200 eye hospitals spread across India and other countries in the continents of Asia, Africa and South America. Site visits and strategic planning activities to strengthen the capacity of other eye care organisations were undertaken throughout the year covering a total of 25 hospitals of which 22 were from India and the others were from China. The year-end saw a new under- standing forged with Prof. Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Prof. Mohammad Ibrahim of CMES (Centre for Mass Education in Science) to help establish Eye Hospitals and Vision Centres in Bangladesh. 6 Towards a Network of 100 Eye Hospitals While the Capacity Building process has been very effective resulting in doubling service levels within a year or two, Aravind realised that there are still several underserved areas lacking eye hospitals to engage in such a process. Aravind also recognised that in some of these areas, there were strong local partners willing and wanting to take up some humanitarian work, but who did not necessarily have the organisational capacity to deliver eye care. In these situations Aravind saw an opportunity to impact lives by guiding the local Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim, partner in the process of setting up an Eye Hospital and directly Dr. P. Balakrishnan, Prof. Mohammad Yunus and Mr. Nagarajan managing them to jointly serve many more people. To make this opportunity operational, Aravind has set for itself the goal of becoming a network of 100 eye hospitals. It also aims to grow in capacity enough to be able to directly reach and restore vision to one million patients each year. The organisation hopes to reach these goals within the next 10 years. Though it is an ambitious target a good headway has already been made. The First Undertaking Munshiganj is a village near the rural town of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. It is an area with no eye care facilities within a radius of 65km. However it does have a good general hospital under the leadership of Mr. Rahul Gandhi. His commitment to improving the lives of the people in that area led to collaboration between Aravind Eye Care System and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. Once an Dr. G. Venkataswamy with Mr. Rahul Gandhi at the Vision Building agreement to establish the Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital and Research Workshop Centre was reached, the selection of staff, their training, remodeling the facility and equipping the hospital were all complete within a span of 7 months. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the eye hospital on the 4th of December. Ever since the day of opening, the hospital has seen a steady flow of patients and is already approaching its capacity. Dr. S. Aravind, Mr. G. Srinivasan, Mr.R.D.Thulasiraj, Dr. G. Natchiar, and Dr.P.Namperumalsamy with Mrs. Sonia Collaborative Initiatives Gandhi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi and the Amethi Over the years, eye care became synonymous with cataract services, team at the inauguration of Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital and Research Centre an understandable strategy, as cataract is the leading cause of 7 blindness the world over. Building systems to address cataract has also built the foundation to address other eye conditions that until recently were neglected. In order to proactively address this, during the year several workshops and training activities were conducted to help other eye hospitals to introduce much needed speciality eye care services. Capacity building activities to introduce paediatric eye care was carried out in collaboration with ORBIS International. Sight Savers collaborated with Aravind to support their partner hospitals to Dr. R. Chidambaram, Chairman, TIFAC, acquire the capacity to manage Diabetic Retinopathy. Aravind Dr. M. Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to continued to receive support from the World Diabetes Foundation Defence Minister, Lt. Gen. Yash Malhotra, Member TIFAC Gov. Council, Prof. (WDF) and TIFAC-CORE (Technology Information, Forecasting & Indiresan, Member TIFAC-CUSEC, Assessment Council for developing Centres of Relevance and Mr. Deepak Bhatnagar, Advisor, Mission REACH, TIFAC, Dr. P. Namperumalsamy Excellence - a Government of India initiative) to develop the service and Dr. Shukla during Third annual delivery model and training modules in the area of Diabetic TIFAC-CORE meet Retinopathy. A new WDF project was launched at Aravind- Pondicherry, to provide Diabetic Retinopathy services to the people of Pondicherry and adjoining districts. . . . for Patient Care Industry collaboration reached new heights in 2005 with the inauguration of an Alcon-supported Cataract Surgery wet lab at Aravind-Tirunelveli; the signing of a master agreement with Essilor to promote Optometry and Refraction training and services; support ...at the inauguration of the ALCON from Topcon for the development of fundus image grading software; supported Wet lab, Aravind-Tirunelveli continuing support from Zeiss for the training activities of the Aravind- Zeiss Glaucoma Centre of Excellence at Tirunelveli; and support from State Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank for advanced diagnos- tic equipment to enhance patient care. . . . for Research The basic research at Aravind involving genetics, stem cells, biochemistry, etc., has moved to a higher level of growth. Several new research grants have been awarded by the Department of Science & Technology and ICMR. In addition to this, a Memorandum Of Mr. Xavier Fontanet, Chairman and CEO, Essilor and Mr. G. Srinivasan sign an MOU Understanding was signed with Singapore National Eye Centre for to promote Optometry and Refractive collaborative research. In order to accommodate the current growth Training and Services and to provide for new activities, plans are on the drawing board for a new research building. AMRF Team with the Singapore National Eye Centre team at the signing of the MOU 8 In line with Online Development Aravind was quick to adopt Information Technology within its various systems. Patient care management has been online for over 15 years now and this has improved Aravind’s efficiency exponentially. Recognising the role that IT can play in reducing needless blindness, Aravind initiated, with support from CBM, the development of an Integrated Hospital Management Software, which can work in most hospital settings and not just in Aravind. This was extensively tested within the Aravind system and since then there has been a great deal of interest from other eye hospitals in adopting this software. In response to this a team was created to customise the software, install it and train new users. It has now been implemented in 15 eye hospitals across India, Bangladesh and Tanzania. Honors Conferred Dr. G. Venkataswamy was honored by the Institute for Health and Healing, California Pacific Medical Center, in recognition of his contribution to Pioneers in the Art, Science and Soul of Healing. To be rated as one among the ‘Top Fifty Opinion Leaders’, is one of the greatest honors conferred on world leaders in ophthalmology by the ophthalmic fraternity. This year Dr. M. Srinivasan, Director, Aravind Eye Hospitals & Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology was given this recognition for his ‘Outstanding Contribution and Leadership in the Fields of Cataract and Refractive Surgery’. New Developments With the revolution in laser vision correction, patient demand has led Aravind to set up a LASIK centre at Aravind-Tirunelveli and to upgrade the one at Aravind-Madurai to a Zyoptix 100. The Instruments Maintenance department released a video on instruments maintenance in both VHS and DVD formats on September 10th, sponsored by Sight Savers International. The video is a joint effort of the Instruments Maintenance and the Audio-Visual Department, under the guidance of Prof. V. Srinivasan. Bhoomi pooja at Veerapanjan Aurolab launched various new products in 2005. It included the microsurgical blades, a single use injector, a retinal dye, absorbable sutures and a bipolar coagulator. With support and guidance from the TIFAC - Chairman, Dr. R. Chidambaram, Aurolab has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), Indore, to develop Green lasers which are widely used for photocoagulation in the treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy. The Bhoomi pooja for Aurolab’s new facility was held on April 18 in the presence of Dr. G. Venkataswamy. The construction of this new facility has already started and is expected to be completed by the end of 2006. This facility will enable Aurolab to enhance its production capacity to meet the increasing demand for its existing products and to introduce new products. 9