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The remains of the nearly hundred year old building at the main campus of Sankara Nethralaya is being cleared and the site is being prepared for the New Ten Storied Building which will house the Research Complex that will satisfy the growing demands in ophthalmic infrastructure in this part of the world. Please help us raise funds for putting up this building which will in turn help our research scholars find more ways to combat blindness.
Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas was awarded Fellowship in National Academy of Medical Sciences. Excerpts from his letter to our Chairman Dr. S. S. Badrinath - " I have received a letter informing me of the nomination to the membership of the Natioanl Academy of Medical Sciences. Iam thankful to the foundation for giving me the opportunity and the support. I am very grateful to my colleagues for their help and support without which I would not have been able to get this prestigious fellowship."
Congrats! to the entire L & T - Ocular Pathology Department for, the success belongs to each one of you - Dr. S. S. Badrinath
Prof. Michael Bluementhal M.D. came all the way from Israel to be along with Dr. S.S.Badrinath as a Patron at the Indo Israel Ophthalmic Congress in Chennai. He gifted this valuable book with his message.
Reproduced below excerpt from a letter to our Chairman Dr. S. S. Badrinath written by Dr. G. Sitalakshmi - Director Cornea Services, Sankara Nethralaya :
“ I deem myself most lucky to have got an opportunity to learn directly from the giant. Like ARJUNA who was a special student of DRONACHARYA (Professor Falcinelli). I feel I am most privileged and blessed. The most happiest moment was when his son told me that Professor wants to help our Institute to make Sankara Nethralaya as a centre of excellence for OOKP (Osteo Odonto Keratoprosthesis) which would cater to the whole world. I pray his dream comes true. Professor will continue to visit us regularly as he feels it is a part of his mission. I had promised that OOKP will be done at our Institute and this has become a reality. My outlook towards life has changed seeing their selfless love and devotion and my life will be to serve these unfortunate patients. Thank you Sir, this Institute has made it possible without whose help it is not possible to perform such a complicated procedure.”
Dr. S.S. Badrinath - Chairman Sankara Nethralaya, has been conferred with the Silver Jubilee Hall of Fame Award by the Scientific Committee of Maharashtra Ophthalmological Society at the Focus 2005 Conference coinciding with its the silver jubilee celebrations at Mumbai. The honour has been conferred by all the three societies viz. Maharashtra Opthalmological Society, Vidarbha Ophthalmological Society and the Bombay Ophthalmological Society on the 6th of November 2005.
Guru Brahma Guruh Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshvaraha, Guruh Sakshath Parabramha ,Tasmai Sree Guruve Namah! is the favourite prayer for sixteen year old Ms. Priya Shankar a student of class ten and a resident of Fermont, California, United States of America. American born and American bred, she is in the know of the untold miseries suffered by the poor children in India. She could not wait to grow up to earn a salary to do something for these poor children of God. She got a brilliant idea. She obtained training from Guru Ms. Indumathy Ganesh and gave a scintillating Bharatanatyam performance at the Jackson Theatre of Oblone College in Fermont. The enthralled audience responded to her appeal and contributed. Priya's 81 year old Grandmother visited Sankara Nethralaya this morning and gave a cheque for Rupees Ten Thousand to be used for performing Cataract surgery on four children. We are touched by her magnanimity at the very young age and pray to the Almighty to bless Priya with all that she deserves.
The first Indo Israel i2i Ophthalmic Congress was inaugurated by Dr. Gullapalli N. Rao - Chairman & President of International Agency for Prevention of Blindness and the Distinguished Chair of Eye Health, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute on 19th November 2005 at the Chennai Convention Centre, Nandambakkam, Chennai.
His Excellency Mr. David Danieli, the Israeli Ambassador to India was the guest of honour. He released the Abstract Book and in his address to the distinguished audience of ophthalmologists from all parts of the globe, said the symposium was a microcosm of the forward-moving India-Israel relationship. Besides, Medicine, Science, Technology and IT were some of the areas the two countries which shared trade amounting to around US $ 2.7 billion annually, could collaborate in.
The event was hosted by Sankara Nethralaya along with Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai; L.V.Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad; Shri.Ganapati Netralaya, Jalna and Sri.Sankaradeva Nethralaya, Guwahati. The event was organised by ophthalmologists of Sankara Nethralaya headed by Dr. Prema Padmanabhan and her team.
Addressing presspersons, Dr. Gullapalli N. Rao said the broad areas of collaboration are creating standards for eye care services in the country, providing education, clinical research and guiding national blindness control policy.
Dr. S.S.Badrinath, Chairman - Sankara Nethralaya, said the aim was to bring together talent and technology, which often took stand-alone positions. With almost 1.5 million of India's 1.4 billion people visually challenged, the country shouldered the biggest burden of global blindness. He said, "It is time to act together to develop common standards and achieve common goals".
Prof. Michael Blumenthal from Israel, pioneer of the 'Small Incision Cataract Surgery' and an educator for Indian ophthalmologists during periodic visits to India over the past twenty-five years, said the level of ophthalmic expertise in India was outstanding. He said, "It is one thing to usher in an innovation; quite another to implement it across a layer of sustained excellence".
Dr.Ravi Thomas, Director - L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, stressed the importance of infrastructure building in rural areas alongside community outreach programmes, which had its own limitations. Dr.Thomas said "The exciting possibilities opened up by teleophthalmology should not distract us from broadbasing eye care infrastructure".
The two day conference also focussed on latest advances in the treatment of common disorders such as cataract, retinal diseases, glaucoma and the nascent sub speciality of oculoplasty.
There were nearly twenty stalls displaying various sophisticated equipment and the latest books pertaining to ophthalmology.
The two-day conference was very well attended by over 600 delegates from all over the country and as well as from Israel and Singapore.
The inaugural function concluded with a scintillating performance of Classical and Folk Dances by the 'Kalakshetra Foundation'.
The World Ophthalmology Congress will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 19th to 24th February 2006. As a part of this congress a symposium on “Quality Management in Ophthalmology departments/ Hospitals in the middle east and Asia” is planned.
Prof Dr Alexander A Bialasiewicz, Professor and Head, Dept. of Ophthalmology and Program for Ophthalmic Technicians, Sultan Qaboos University, 123 AI Khod/ MUSCAT, OMAN had invited Sankara Nethralaya and Ms Shyamala Selvaraj is likely to make a presentation about Total Quality Management Project at Sankara Nethralaya.
All of life is a series of choices, and what you choose to give life today will determine what life will give you tomorrow.
Reproducing a letter from Ms. Jayashree Sunder addressed to our Chairman:
Dear Sir:
My name is Jayashree and I currently live in the U.S. based at Fremont, California.
I was an ex-employee of your organization and worked with several Heads of Departments like Mr.s.R.Chandran, Mr.P.Bhaskaran, Mr.N.Sivakumar and Mr.V.Suresh as an Administrative Assistant.
During my tenure with the organisation for over two and a half years I strongly understood the operations and significance of the organisation and would like to see if I can continue supporting my efforts to the organisation from the U.S.
Kindly let me know if I could by any way support you with my efforts working from U.S.
With kind regards,
Jayashree Sunder
Top performers learn to make the proper choices!
The XXIV Annual Conference of India Association of Medical Microbiology was conducted at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Porur, Chennai between 21 - 23 October 2005.
During the inaugural session, Mrs. B. Mahalakshmi - Senior Research Fellow from the L&T Microbiology Department of Sankara Nethralaya received the Junior IAMM best paper award for the year 2004.
The scientific sessions of the conference included oration lectures, symposium, Oral and poster presentations. The participants from Sankara Nethralaya included Dr.H.N.Madhavan, Dr.K.Lily Therese, Dr.J.Malathi, Mrs.P.Deepa, Miss.R.Bagyalakshmi and Miss.P.Sowmya presenting research papers in Immunology and Virology and oral presentations in Mycobacteriology and Mycology.
The theme lecture - 'Clinical Microbiology in the Millenium : The dilemma for Clinical Microbiologist: Phenotypic or Genotypic characterization of bacteria' was delivered by Dr. David Stroman of Alcon Laboratory, U.S.A., while Dr. H.N.Madhavan-Professor & Head of Microbiology at Sankara Nethralaya chaired the session and spoke in detail about collaborative research work between Vision Research Foundation and Alcon Laboratory.
There were 137 oral presentations in all among which two were from Sankara Nethralaya's L & T Microbiology Research Centre, one each in Mycology and Mycobacteriology by Miss. R. Bagyalakshmi and Mrs.P.Deepa respectively.
Dr. K.Lily Therese delivered a lecture on 'Molecular methods in diagnosis of ocular infections'.
Dr.H.N.Madhavan was elected as the Executive Council Member for the next three years by the organising committee of the Indian Association of Medical Microbiology.
