MOBILE TELEOPHTHALMOLOGY

Camp Organizers

Camp Sponsors

Work Flow

Teleophthalmology holds a great potential to improve the quality, access, and affordability in health care. For patients, it can reduce the need for travel and provide the access to a super-specialist Ophthalmology lends itself easily to telemedicine as it is largely image based diagnosis. The rapid progress achieved in the field of Telecommunications renders Teleophthalmology easily feasible

The Rural Mobile Teleophthalmology unit has an air-conditioned consultation room equipped with State of the art equipments for comprehensive Eye Check-up. In addition it has the facility to transmit digitized images of the posterior and anterior segments of the eye to the Main Hospital Hub at Chennai via Satellite connectivity provided by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Bangalore . Facilities exist for Teleconsultation to interact between our Super Specialist at Chennai, Hub and the patient along with our Optometrist in the unit at rural area of Northern Tamil Nadu and Southern Andhra Pradesh.

Now we have two Teleophthalmology units running at Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, two Mobile Teleophthalmology and spectacle dispensing unit at Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, one Mobile Spectacle dispensing unit at Karnataka.

Teleophthalmology Complete Examination Clinical Camps (not a screening camp) will be conducted in partnership with a local community service organization, which sponsors the camp. These camps are organized / planned three months before the schedule.

After working with the sponsor in making the appropriate arrangements, the “Social Worker-Planning” will guide the sponsors about adequate publicity (Thandora, Hand Bills, Banners, Auto Announcement, Posters, Cable TV, Cinema Slides, Wall writing etc) about the camp to the surrounding community. The “Social Worker-Planning” visits the site about one week before the scheduled date to oversee the arrangements and to discuss with the sponsor about the strategies to ensure the smooth conduct of the eye camp. One day before the camp, the social worker of Teleophthalmology team will train the volunteers from NSS, NCC, Scouts/Cubs, Youth Association, Lions Club, Rotary Club and Self Help group for two hours on the project at the camp site, and do door –to-door enumeration.

The Teleophthalmology team will also be involved in educating the local community about eye care. Teaching and Training for local Ophthalmologist / General Physicians / Optometrists / Opticians / Nurses and teachers to identify the children with visual impairments are also part of this project.

We also organize awareness meeting in the evening at the camp location to educate the rural populace on the importance of eye care and hygiene. We have also introduced a spectacle dispensing unit in the rear of the vehicle to give spectacles at a very reasonable cost by grinding suitable lenses and fitting into frames to suite individual requirements, which is greatly appreciated by the villagers.