Glimpses 2009-2010.pdf - LV Prasad Eye Institute

Competence and Compassion
Matching high-tech with heart
The beginning of April, when we begin to compile this Annual Review, is a colourful
time in the city of Hyderabad, the epi-centre of the LVPEI Network. The cascading
yellow laburnum, known as Amaltas in Hindi, the bright orange flame tree, or the
Gulmohar, the delicate pink Mimosa and the flamboyant yellow flame tree better known
as the Copperpod, are all in their element. Visitors to the Kallam Anji Reddy Campus are
treated not only to good eye care, but to these beauties! Inside the building, our artists in
residence ensure an art collection that is literally a sight for sore eyes!
Whether it is in the appropriate dimness of the examination rooms, under the microscopes
of our research laboratories, the design and delivery of courses, the personal detail of our
rehabilitation programs or the careful targeting of our community eye health initiatives, the
common threads that run through are our core values: equity, excellence and efficiency.
As we continue to reach more people in need and seek ways of making care accessible and
affordable even as it keeps up with changing trends in technology and new knowledge in
public health, science and management, our aim is to balance the new with the old; in other
words, to learn with the head but apply with a good measure of heart.
This approach took us to the theme of this year’s annual review: high tech and heart.
The high technology is visible in the shine of our diagnostic equipment, the beeps of the
black boxes in our molecular biology and stem cell labs and the rigor of our statistically
sifted medical evidence, while the heart permeates all our work, from helping a 50-year-old
professor cope with sudden vision loss due to glaucoma or giving a 15-year-old back his feet
in the form of mobility training and rehabilitation, or even spending time with the parents
of a child who has just lost an eye due to advanced eye cancer.
Attention is clearly clinical where necessary; when a surgeon decides which microkeratome
to use, or the pathologist examines a section of tissue. But always, it is tempered with
human understanding, when deciding which scientific question to pursue, or how to educate
a family about developmental glaucoma.
The LVPEI Network continued to expand through 2009 and the early part of 2010. We
ventured farther into the rural hinterland, opening 6 new Vision Centres and continuing
to work with several secondary eye centres in capacity building. We performed 665,317
examinations and 69,112 surgeries across our patient care system. Young people continue
to come to Hyderabad, and increasingly, to Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam, to learn from
us and to help take the LVPEI spirit to other institutions across the country and the globe.
The following pages take you through the journeys of the head and heart that we have
taken, individually and collectively, in our endeavor to bring eye care to all in need.
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