Sankara Eye Hospital launch two dedicated centres of excellence

Bengaluru: Sankara Eye Hospital announced the launch of dedicated Centres of Excellence in Vitreo-Retinal Diseases and Oncology and Pediatric Ophthalmology, Strabismus and Neuro Ophthalmology at Bengaluru. The centers were inaugurated by former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa. Member of Parliament-Shivamogga, B Y Ragavendra and Aravind Limbavali, MLA-Mahadevpura were also present at the inaugural ceremony.

The centre of excellence in VR and Ocular Oncology has trained doctors from six countries and handles Diabetic and Retinal detachment surgeries and is one of the very few centres in the country to perform tumor resections and vitreoretinal surgeries for eye cancers and offering surgery for blinding stage 5 Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP).

The hospital has collaborated and evaluated the first indigenous Ru-106 plaque Brachytherapy developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC).

With the incidence of Diabetes growing rapidly, the complications of Diabetic Retinopathy have become a blinding disease of concent. This centre of excellence will be able to give state of the art preventive and curative measures to all people.

The centre of Excellence Paediatric Ophthalmology, Strabismus and Neuro Ophthalmology offers comprehensive eye care to children for their refractive error correction. The centre has Milestone Clinic for Early Intervention that provides care to children with Autism Spectrum and other special needs. The team has pioneered certain techniques of squint correction that has been recognized with awards at the national level. The department has incorporated AI and other technologies with global partners to detect amblyopia (lazy eye) & refractive error. Both the centres were supported by Arm Embedded Technologies.

Inaugurating the centres of excellence, Honourable former Chief Minister and MLA, Shikaripura Taluka, Sri B S Yediyurappa, said: "It is very inspiring to see Sankara Eye Hospital serving the community on such a large scale and help those who need eye care but are unable to afford the treatment. The hospital has set a precedent in quality eye care and the goals that the institution has set for itself are noteworthy. I hope the hospital will extend its reach further and continue the excellent work that it is doing in eye care."

Commenting on the launch, Dr. R V Ramani, Founder and Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Foundation, said, "These two new dedicated centres of excellence will provide comprehensive eye care with advanced technologies that will ensure world class treatment to all patients cutting across economic and social disparities. Sankara Eye Hospitals practice 80:20 model, wherein 80% of the beneficiaries are the rural poor who receive totally free eye care whereas the rest of the 20% are the affordable of the section of the society, who pay for their treatment, thereby making the institution self-sustaining".

Some of the ongoing initiatives of Sankara include "Gift of Vision" Rural outreach eyecare program, Preventive eyecare for the school children, Rehabilitative eye care for the incurably blind. In the State of Karnataka, through Sankara Eye Hospital Bangalore and Shimoga, over 35 lakh people have been served and over 6 lakh people received high quality eye surgeries.