Sankara Eye Hospital partners Geuder AG to set up training Centre in Bangalore for Surgeons, Paramedical Staff and Industry professionals

Sankara Eye Hospital partners Geuder AG to set up training Centre in Bangalore
for Surgeons, Paramedical Staff and Industry professionals

The initiative is first of its kind in Asia for Geuder A G to partner an Eye Care Institution

Bangalore, India, December 27, 2010: With demand for quality eye care spreading throughout India, home to12 million blind there is an urgent need for trained eye-care professionals. Every year India trains 900 ophthalmologists and 1,300 Mid-level Ophthalmic Personnel (MLOP), but still has a long way to go towards the requirement of 25,000 ophthalmologists and 20,000 MLOPs by the year 2020.
For the first time in Asia, Geuder Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Geuder AG, has entered into a partnership with an Eye Care institution to offer training for Surgeons, Paramedical Staff and Industry professionals in Phacoemulsification and Vitreoretinal Surgery. Over the last 60 years, German based, Geuder AG, one of the leading manufacturers of innovative ophthalmic instruments and systems, has partnered with numerous eye care institutions in in Europe and North America. Ophthalmologists from more than 90 countries rely on the absolute precision and reliability of the more than 3,000 different Geuder products.
Ophthalmology is an extremely specialized field in medicine which places the highest demands on its surgeons. Modern procedures cannot be performed without precise instruments & innovative systems. The Sankara Geuder Competence Centre (SGCC) will offer new technology solutions, which requires continuity in education and skills, to current challenges faced by Ophthalmologists in the treatment of Cataract and Vitreoretinal diseases. The optimal application of Geuder’s State of Art technology will help introduce new surgical techniques for better patient outcomes at affordable costs without compromising on safety standards. The wet lab will provide practicing surgeons to upgrade their skills in Micro-incision Cataract Surgery and suture-less Vitrectomy procedures. Besides, this training model will be replicated at other centres of Sankara Eye Care Institution. SGCC will also create an infrastructure to provide training for Biomedical Engineering field staff and paramedical staff of users in a clinical environment, besides being a venue to evaluate future technologies and development of clinical surgical parameters.
The centre was inaugurated by Dr A S Rathore, Additional Director General Ophthalmology, National Programme for Control of Blindness in the presence of Shri Anil Kumar Nair, Managing Director Geuder Asia Pacific and Dr R V Ramani, Founder & Managing Trustee, Sankara Eye Care Institutions, India.
Dr R V Ramani, Founder and Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Care Institution, said, ‘The Sankara Geuder Competence Centre is a conscious step in the direction towards our Vision 20/20 for all by the year 2020, a project to benefit 1 million under-privileged every year. We will provide training to the entire gamut from field workers to paramedical staff and ophthalmologists. Training in eye-care is an integral part to eradicate preventable blindness which occupies 90% of the total blindness’. He added, ‘Currently, lack of awareness, poor quality of service, lesser number of trained eye-surgeons, high cost of treatment and lack of accessibility have plagued our country. Diagnosis and treatment of preventable blindness will provide enormous saving and facilitate human and socio-economic development’.

Anil Kumar Nair, Managing Director, Geuder Asia Pacific, added, ‘Geuder Asia Pacific would make available innovative technology from Geuder AG, which is currently based on best practices in Europe. The cross fertilisation of Sankara Eye Hospital’s surgical expertise in the use and application of Geuder’s product features would spawn new surgical approaches and techniques which are fine tuned for Indian operating conditions’.
Sankara Eye Care Institutions, the premier community eye care hospitals in the country is also an institution of repute that runs programmes in Fellowship, Clinical Observership and Research besides other paramedical courses. The long term VR fellowship is under the aegis of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. All other training certification would be given by the Sankara Eye hospital, Bangalore. Faculty would comprise of Senior eye surgeons, administrators and paramedical staff at Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore. They would be supported by biomedical engineers from Geuder International.

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About Sankara Eye Hospital: Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, is among the foremost eye care hospital in the region. It is a unit of Coimbatore based Sankara Eye Care Institutions, which runs a chain of super specialty affordable and quality eye care hospitals across India. The hospital adopts the 80:20 patient ratio, where-in the 20% are paid patients and the 80% belong to the economically underprivileged class and are treated free. It has played a commendable role in community eye care in the remote corners of the country through its numerous programmes in detecting and eradicating preventable blindness. Sankara Eye Hospital Bangalore and Shimoga provide quality eye care to 13 districts covering South and Central Karnataka. Over 60,000 vision-restoring procedures have been performed successfully till date in the State. Sankara has been recognized for its yeoman service to humanity, both in the country and internationally and has won many awards. Some of the awards are the ‘Namma Bengaluru Award 2010, in February, India NGO Award 2008 and the Hospital Management Asia Award 2008 and the FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards in September 2009and September 2010.For more information, you can visit www.sankaraeye.com

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This release was published on openPR.