Aravind-Chennai, February 14

Aravind-Chennai opened a state-of-the-art eye bank and the new facility was inaugurated by Dr.Venkatesh Prajna, Chief, Cornea and Refractive Surgery Services, Aravind-Madurai. The eye bank will be closely working with hospitals and community volunteers for harvesting corneas.

Aravind-Chennai, February 14

Aravind-Chennai opened an Ocular Prosthesis Unit and the facility was inaugurated by Dr.Usha Kim, Chief, Orbit & Oculoplasty Services, Aravind-Madurai.

Aravind-Chennai, February 14

Aravind Eye Hospital, Chennai expanded its out-patient services with the inauguration of the second floor. The second floor spanning 40,000 square feet is the new home to the Retina and Vitreous Clinic; Glaucoma Clinic and Paediatric Ophthalmology and Squint Clinic. The new clinics were inaugurated by the Chief guest, Dr.N.M.Veeraiyyan, Chancellor, Saveetha University and Guest of honour, Mr.Wilson Thomas, Managing Director, Carl Zeiss, India, in addition to other dignitaries. The CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, Mr.Karl Lamprecht shared a video message regarding the Aravind-Zeiss collaboration on this occasion.

The new spacious Retina and Vitreous Department is all set to see about 600-700 patients a day including those coming in for retinal laser procedures. The department can also handle about 100 patients requiring intravitreal injections. The new Glaucoma Department can now see upto 500 patients including those coming in for glaucoma-related laser procedures. The new Paediatric Ophthalmology Department with its child-friendly ambience can cater to around 300 patients and patients with squint-related problems on a daily basis. The floor is self-sufficient with registration counters, pharmacy, optical shop and cafeteria. It is designed to save patient waiting times and increase work-efficiency of the hospital.

Aravind-Tirunelveli has embarked on a pilot project to assess the feasibility of artificial intelligence in identifying chronic eye diseases. The project is being implemented in ten vision centres of Aravind-Tirunelveli. New fundus cameras were procured as part of this and two training sessions were arranged for the staff of these centres to orient them on the usage of these, one on January 28 and the second one on February 10.

Aravind-Tirunelveli, February 13

Staff from Zeiss Company conducted the workshop for the staff of Opticals Department of Aravind-Tirunelveli and the workshop was held at Hotel Apple Tree. It stressed on communication skills, importance  of team work and ensuring patient satisfaction. Along with the staff of Opticals Department, Nursing Superintendents – Ms.V.Arumugam and Ms.Shanmuga Sundari took part in the workshop. The workshop had both theory and practical sessions.

Aravind-Madurai, January 4

Today’s smartphones are packed with many innovative apps that can totally transform the life of a blind or visually impaired user. Moreover, in this era of online education, smartphones are a basic necessity for any student. Realising these, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai in collaboration with the NGOs, VISION AID and Trees for Life has embarked on a project to distribute smart phones to visually impaired students and job-seekers from underprivileged communities. The smartphone will be beneficial for students to undergo their online classes and for job-seekers, it will help in better networking and easy correspondences to find a placement. At a function held at Aravind-Madurai, smart phones were distributed to ten beneficiaries. With the help of a special app, the beneficiaries were briefed on the usage of the smartphones. A special app installed in the phone teaches the users on the usage of it; an online training session by faculty from Hadley University was also arranged to familiarize them on the usage of smart phones. Apart from this, staff of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Centre at Aravind-Madurai also provided in-person training to these beneficiaries on smartphone usage. This is an ongoing training programme offered by at Aravind-Madurai.