L. V. Prasad Eye Institute

L V Prasad Eye Institute
Geography
Location	L V Prasad Marg, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Organisation
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Speciality	Ophthalmology
History
Founded	1987
Links
Website	http://www.lvpei.org
Lists	Hospitals in India

The L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) was established in 1987^[1] at Hyderabad as a not-for-profit, non-government eye care institution.^[2] The highly prestigious “The Week-Nielsen” survey for rating the best hospitals in the country has declared LVPEI hyderabad as third best eye hospital in India. The survey was conducted on stringent quality measures by experts, covering 15 cities from September to October 2014.

LVPEI has six active arms to its areas of operation

Clinical Services

LVPEI has served nearly 15 million (1 crore 50 lakh people),^[3] over 50% of them entirely free of cost, irrespective of the complexity of care needed.

Education

Ophthalmologists with postgraduate qualifications are offered Fellowships in Sub-specialties as well as courses to improve their skills and knowledge; Optometrists with BSc (Optom) and D. Opt., are trained likewise. In addition, 4-year BS (Optom), 5-year MS (Optom) and Phd degrees are offered through BITS Pilani and the University of Hyderabad; nurses are given on-the-job training as ophthalmic nurses, and all cadres of eye professionals are trained. Till date, LVPEI has trained over 13,000 eye care professionals. The Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry (BLSO) and the Zeiss International Academy for Advanced Ophthalmic Education are integral parts of LVPEI's Education Centre. A comprehensive cooperative agreement of mutual benefit in education and research was recently signed with the University of Rochester Eye Institute (UREI), USA. Other international collaborators include the Case Western Reserve University, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (rated Number One in Ophthalmology in the USA), the University of Wisconsin, USA, Duke University, Mayo Clinic, and the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Research

Basic research into the genetic, molecular and Cellular Biology and microbiology aspects of eye disorders is practiced. Clinical research such as clinical trials is also done, and public health research, particularly Epidemiology on the prevalence of blinding conditions, is a major feature at LVPEI. The Institute has seen the award of 29 PhD degrees, publication of over 1100 peer-reviewed research papers, has four Bhatnagar awardees for outstanding medical research accomplishments, and several national level fellowships. Also, it has performed over 900 stem cell based reconstruction of damaged corneal surface. On 1 June 2012, LVPEI Head Of Research Prof.Balasubranian said that research on gene therapy to correct genetic ocular disorders is on and gene delivery into the eye could happen in 1–2 years.^[4]

Rehabilitation and Sight Enhancement Services

This is an integral part of LVPEI. Technological and biological help is made available to those who need it. Indeed, LVPEI is the lone centre anywhere, where clinical help and rehabilitation^[5] are provided in the same campus. Rehabilitation is a combination of learning daily living and work-related skills, and the use of suitable low vision devices, along with professional counseling.

LVPEI has multiple centres for vision rehabilitation across its campuses:

1. The Meera and L B Deshpande Centre for Sight Enhancement, Hyderabad
2. The Dr P R K Prasad Centre for Rehabilitation of Blind and Visually Impaired, Hyderabad
3. The NTPC Centre for Sight Enhancement, Bhubaneswar
4. Bob Ohlson Centre for Sight Enhancement, Visakhapatnam

These vision rehabilitation Centres have collaborative links with international organizations such as the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and Lighthouse International.^[6] Over 100,000 people have thus far been provided these services.

Eye Bank

The Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) is the largest provider of sight restoring corneas in India and a SightLife Center of Excellence in Eye Banking. Since its establishment in 1989, RIEB has greatly increased the collection of transplantable donor corneas and elevated eye banking performance standards in India, and other parts of Asia and the developing world. As a leader in eye banking across Asia, RIEB has contributed significantly to the effective networking and proliferation of eye banks through promotion of community eye banking programs.

An active eye bank is part of the institute. Corneas are collected from donors and used both in-house and distributed to other centres. The medium used to store corneas is manufactured and sent to other needy banks. LVPEI's eye bank has harvested over 36,000 donor corneas, and transplanted over 20,000 of them to needy patients.L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) has become the first Institute in the world to perform 20,000 corneal transplants across its network. The record was achieved in the 25th year of establishment of LVPEI’s Ramayamma International Eye Bank, the largest eye bank in Asia.

The RIEB set up the Hyderabad Cornea Preservation Medium Centre which uses a McKarey Kauffman (MK) Medium^[7] for preservation and storage of corneas and eye tissue material for up to four days. The MK Medium was specially developed at L V Prasad as an economical and cost-effective product for domestic distribution within India and in developing countries across the world and also to several eye banks within India and 21 others in South East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

The RIEB offers certificate courses to different cadres of eye bank personnel. At the RIEB training center, eye bank professionals from India and other countries are educated in the planning of eye banking services, policy making in eye banking and eye banking techniques. The RIEB also conducts the Indian Eye Banking Education Programme(IEBEP) workshop once in 2 years to educate eye bankers in the basics and latest advancements in eye banking. The research wing of the RIEB focuses on research pertaining to donor cornea storage and donor cornea decontamination.

Public Health and Rural Outreach

While all above are conducted in the campus at Hyderabad, this activity is spread to the rural parts of the state of AP and neighbouring areas, in order to deliver quality eye care at/near the doorstep. This was prompted by the results of the epidemiological survey that LVPEI conducted during 1995-1999 (Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study, or APEDS), which revealed that over 75% of the blindness (due to Cataract uncorrected 'power' or refractive error, and infection) is needless - avoidable, treatable and curable. Since over 70% of Indians live in villages, it becomes imperative to have quality eye care available, accessible, affordable and acceptable to them. This is the origin of the five-tier pyramid model of eye care delivery, created by LVPEI, which today serves over 30 million people across all levels of care - from primary to quaternary. Out of the 107 locations that LVPEI currently operates from, 89 of them are primary eye care centres located in remote villages.

See also

• Genome Valley

References