Monday, October 1, 2018

Google doodle honours Indian ophthalmologist Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy

Venkataswamy is the founder and chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals, the largest provider of eye care in the world. The eye hospital has treated over 55 million patients and performed over 6.8 million surgeries. Venkataswamy could perform over 100 surgeries a day, addressing the problem of blindness in a holistic fashion.


NEW DELHI: Google on Monday marked the 100th birth anniversary of Indian ophthalmologist Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy with a doodle.

Venkataswamy is the founder and chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals, the largest provider of eye care in the world.
The eye hospital has treated over 55 million patients and performed over 6.8 million surgeries and has played a crucial role in eradicating cataract-related blindness in the country.



According to Google blog post, he was known as Dr V to his colleagues and patients. He founded the Aravind Eye Hospital, which started as “an 11-bed facility and has grown into a network of clinics providing life-changing care to citizens of a nation struggling with high rates of blindness.”


In 1992, Dr V and partners of Aravind founded Aurolab, an internationally certified manufacturing facility that brought the price of the intraocular lens down to one-tenth of international prices, making it affordable for developing countries.Today, Aurolab manufactures ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, instruments and equipment, in addition to intraocular lenses, and exports to 160 countries worldwide. In 1996, under Dr V's leadership, the Lions Aravind Institute for Community Ophthalmology (LAICO) was founded.LAICO is a training and consulting institute that has helped replicate the Aravind model in 347 hospitals across India and 30 other developing countries.



Dr V introduced a tiered pricing system at Aravind. There are no income assessments or eligibility criteria for free or subsidised treatment. Patients decide whether they would like to access free, subsidised or paid services. Within this system, a cataract operation ranges from free to a little under USD $830 (~ Rs. 53,700) based on the accommodations associated with the surgery and the type of lens implanted.Patients can self-select services and room type based on preference and ability to pay, without compromising clinical outcomes. In practice, one patient who pays, subsidises the no-frills surgeries and pre- and post-operative care of two non-paying patients.



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