Focus On: LV Prasad Eye Institute
Photo courtesy of LV Prasad Eye Institute
Background
Leveraging the support of a two-year grant of $180,620, the LV Prasad (LVP) Eye Institute in Southern India, a world-class eye care system providing services ranging from basic primary eye care to the most advanced specialized eye services, initiated an effort to upgrade 20 vision centers by providing them with IT-enabled ophthalmic equipment.
Project Outcomes
Despite the outbreak of COVID and resulting pandemic, LVP successfully upgraded the 20 vision centers at a rate of 10 per year. As community-based primary care facilities, vision centers provide vision screenings, prescription eyeglasses, and referrals to advanced care. By connecting the centers to LVP’s most advanced care facility through IT-supported teleophthalmology, the new equipment made the transmission of images and other data, as well as virtual consultations, possible. Given that the majority of people who are blind or visually impaired in India live in rural areas, these upgrades helped bring a range of specialized eye care services to those most in need. The advent of teleophthalmology may help transform eye care delivery worldwide by creating the widest possible network of services, extending care into previously inaccessible and remote areas of population, and LVP intends to use this project as a model for future system-wide upgrades.