Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai

Divine inspirations are believed to be restricted to fables and mythological tales. The story goes that Dr SS Badrinath operated on the Paramacharya (seer) of Kanchi. The Acharya spoke of the need to create a hospital with a missionary spirit. Inspired by this mission, Dr Badrinath started Sankara Nethralaya (SN) with just 10 people in 1978. He felt that team and group performance were better than individual pursuit. Today, there are nearly 1,000 committed people working here and an inflow of 1,500 patients per day. At present, SN has five campuses in the city of Chennai and one in Bangalore. The institution has currently over a thousand employees: this includes around 82 full-time ophthalmic consultants working in different subspecialities under one roof. Says Dr Lingam Gopal, Chairman, "The founding objective was to provide quality ophthalmic care, at an affordable cost. Further, it also avowed to provide quality and totally free eye care to the indigent. Secondly, it decided to engage in relevant eye research." Under the direction of the Government of India, a sister organisation named Vision Research Foundation commenced functioning from the main campus in 1983. "The object of the Vision Research Foundation was to do research in both clinical and basic sciences applicable to ophthalmology and vision sciences," adds Dr Gopal.

Innovations in the News

In 2004, SN became the first hospital to perform a surgery called Osteo Odonto Kerato Prosthesis. This procedure involves the use of the patient's tooth to fashion a clear new cornea to replace a diseased or damaged one thereby restoring vision to those who previously had no option of treatment.

The rural outreach programmes of SN cater to the 70 per cent population where healthcare facilities are inadequate. In 2002, Sankara Nethralaya launched its teleophthalmology project in Tamil Nadu. In their endeavor to continue to serve the underprivileged sections of the society using modern technology, the project aims at remote consultations through mobile unit, providing second opinions\diagnosis (tertiary consultation), promote the proficiency of ophthalmologist, physicians and other healthcare personnel by means of video conference-based training, and creating awareness among general population in rural area about eye disorders.

Under the project also known as Sankara Nethralaya Tele-ophthalmology Programme (SNTOP), a mobile van equipped with all the ophthalmic equipment required for the examination of the patients regularly visits the villages. With a satellite link facility provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the patient is able to receive expert advice from the ophthalmologist who is at the base hospital in Chennai.

"We have conducted 450 camps and screened 32,000 patients. The total number of tele-consultations from the mobile van to the base hospital has been around 10,000," enlightens Dr Gopal. Inaugurated in October 2003, The project has also assisted in conducting Continuing Medical Education (CME) programmes for the medical and paramedical practitioners in the smaller towns of India. The model has been replicated in Karnataka. "The project aims to benefit 17 million people in six districts of Karnataka. There are an estimated 3.4 million diabetics and about 31 thousand sight threatening diabetic retinopathy patients living in these areas," says Dr Gopal.

Contributions

Growing demands necessitated establishment and expansion of services at Jagadguru Kanchi Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Nethra Nilayam (JKCN), and Navasuja Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai and Sankara Nethralaya, Bangalore. Currently, 1,500 patients are examined per day in the various locations and units. "We perform 125 major surgical procedures per day. Patients come from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for treatment of difficult and complicated conditions. The CU Shah eye bank collects approximately 1,200 donated eyes and performs approximately 500 corneal transplants per annum," informs Dr Gopal.

Sankara Nethralaya Medical Research Foundation has voluntarily offered technology transfer free of cost and promoted growth of Shri Ganapati Netralaya, Jalna, Maharashtra, and Sankardev Nethralaya, Guwahati, Assam. In the last year, 38 per cent of all the surgeries, approximately 10,000 out of 29,000 were done totally free of cost on indigent patients. As a part of its community programmes curriculum, it has also teamed up with the Tulsi Trust, an NGO. SN has deputed one of its consultants to Nigeria to perform cataract surgeries.

Research

"Recognising our research talents and potentials, an ARVO Indo US team visited Sankara Nethralaya in 2004 for forging collaboration," says Dr Gopal who is also the President of the Vision Research Foundation.

For disseminating knowledge to the ophthalmic community ‘Insight’ and to the lay public ‘Eyelights’ are published periodically. In-house journal for the employees called ‘Agam’ and another to propagate concepts of eye donation a monthly newsletter called ‘Darshan’ are other publications.

Future Plans

SN is looking at next generation research projects like stem cell research and nanotechnology. Discussions are under way for the SNTOP spreading to other states like Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. The Hospital also plans to introduce a 'mobile surgical van'. Only the design of the mobile surgical van is ready as of the moment. Now with Dr Badrinath handing over the reins of the Institute to Dr Gopal, for SN it is the beginning of yet another fruitful era.