Innovation aimed at welfare is great necessity: LVPEI founder-chair

Even as India progress economically, disparities in the two critical sectors of education and healthcare continue, with lakhs being pushed into poverty every year by high healthcare cost. Innovation aimed at human welfare is a great necessity, and it is possible through visionary leaders who build great institutes of learning, said founder-chair of LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) Gullapalli N. Rao on Friday (November 15).

Delivering the 13^th N.J. Yasaswy Memorial Lecture here at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Dr. Rao said LVPEI made a difference to lakhs of poor people by making eye care accessible, even in remote locations through a pyramid model.

“The aim was to treat anyone with any eye problem, irrespective of their ability to pay. In the pyramid model, at the bottom are the vision guardians who monitor eye health in a community of 5,000 people, from where issues are referred to vision centres. These centres cater to primary eye health needs of a village cluster staffed by local personnel. The next level is secondary eye care centres, which also perform cataract surgeries. Tertiary care hospitals provide comprehensive services and doctors from here also visit the secondary eye care centres to offer services. And the ‘Centres of Excellence’ that treat complex eye diseases are at the top of the pyramid. Accessibility is also achieved through mobile diagnostic vehicles,” he explained.

Dr. Rao credited the the pyramid model in enabling treatment to 38 million patients and 2.3 million surgeries and over 50,000 corneal transplants, the highest in the world. The same model was also replicated in Liberia.

The goal was to make primary eye care accessible to more people in the country while also offering services to economically disadvantaged groups for free. Over 90% of all LVPEI expenses are met from charges paid by patients who could afford to pay, he added.

Former Reserve Bank of India governor and chancellor of ICFAI University C. Rangarajan pointed out that social expenditure on education is more than expenditure on health. He stressed the importance of universal health care and said that the mechanism through which health care services are affordable for the not-well-to-do needs to be in place. He observed that the country needed more institutions like LVPEI that cross-subsidise health care. While demanding higher allocation for health care, he said that it is important to ensure that it is well spent before increasing expenditure.

Vice-chancellor L.S. Ganesh, on the occasion, recalled the contributions made by N.J. Yasaswy, founder of ICFAI Group, in promoting higher education in the private sector in the country.

Published - November 15, 2024 08:06 pm IST