In the din of politics, cricket and films a unique achievement of an Indian eye care Institution at the global level got swept into the background or virtually went unnoticed in the country.
The L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad has been ranked 8th globally in the area of Ophthalmology for 2023 by Scimago agency, a Spanish global ranking organisation. The ranking is based on research, technology innovation and social impact of the research output.
It’s significant to find LVPEI in the company of reputed Institutions like Johns Hopkins, Harvard University, Moorfields of London in the top 10 list. The LVPEI is the first Indian medical institute to find place in the top rankings in the field of research productivity.
Scimago Agency analysed data for the past 5 years of the best medical institutions to arrive at the 2023 rankings. The list is headed by Moorfields Eye Hospitals NHS Trust (UK), Johns Hopkins Medicine (US), Singapore National Eye Centre, University of Miami Health System (US), Singapore Eye Research Institute, UCLA Health System, (US) and National Institutes of Health (US) and LVPEI (India). The next two are: US Dept of Health & Human Services and Institute National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicare (France).
A snapshot of achievements
In the last 35 years, since its starting in 1987 by Dr Gullapalli N Rao, the LVPEI has been making steady progress in both-providing top class eye care with social impact and undertaking research and introducing latest technology to stay among the best eye care institutions in India and worldwide.
A quick look at some of the key achievements of the Institute: approximately 34.14 million patients served so far. Of them 16 million were served free of cost. About 56,759 personnel trained. The Institute scientists/researchers have 4099 publications; 57 PhDs; 5 Bhatnagar Award winners and 3 Padma Sri awardees.
To expand its reach the LVPEI has set up a few satellite centres. Through them, it has been able to reach 12,193 villages. Overall, it has performed 1.93 million surgeries, 2029 stem cell based procedures, reached 4.92 million children and established a Cornea Bank with 1.19 lakh corneas of which 69, 964 transplants have been done, according to the Institute.
Asked about the significance of the ranking by the Spanish Agency, Dr Prashant Garg, the Executive Chair of the LVPEI said, “The announcement came as a pleasant surprise to us. It was heartening because we were told that the ranking was based on our consistent performance and impact that our research was making on society.”
The global recognition also corroborates the vision of the founder, Dr G N Rao on placing the highest importance to research right from the beginning along with eye care. Annually, the Institute has been publishing an average of 400 research papers. Consequently, the LVPEI has been intensely focused on world class eye care with research, innovation and social impact as the driving forces, he said.
The institute has also been active in inter-disciplinary collaboration with global institutes. In this context it is pertinent to note that the LVPEI has been helping the Government of Liberia, Africa, in establishing eye care facilities, training Ophthalmologists and skilled technicians and guiding in the creation of both resources and manpower to run a good network to meet the country’s needs in the long term. The African continent has the lowest capabilities in eye care at present.
The LVPEI has established the entire range of eye care facilities in Hyderabad. It tries to be always ahead of the curve in bringing the best technology to its patients in myopia or stem cell therapy. Along with the Arvind Eye Hospital, Shankara Netralaya and the Rajendra Prasad Ophthalmology Institute, it is amongst the top few in the country.
Referring to the future areas of research work with an eye on social impact, Dr Garg said, “We have studied the new opportunities and needs of the region and identified 3-4 broad areas. These include: elderly eye care, inherited eye diseases, eye and the brain linked issues, applications of machine learning.” In addition, a major project is on in Odisha to study the unique eye problems of the tribals, he explained.
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