Dr. Venkatesh Prajna has been working in Aravind as a consultant in the department of cornea services for over three decades and has been the head of the department for the past 15 years. He has been instrumental in developing the department to be one of the largest cornea facilities in India seeing a large number of infectious keratitis patients. He is also the Academic Director of Aravind Eye Care System and oversees a residency programme of 80 residents at a point of time. In addition, he coordinates training programmes of international residents as well as ophthalmologists in short term training courses. He has over 175 peer reviewed publications in the leading international ophthalmology journals and is a peer reviewer for many prestigious journals. He is the Chief Editor for Peyman’s Principles and Practice of Ophthalmology, 2nd edition that compiles contributions from 300 contributors from 15 countries. He serves in the Advisory Board of JAMA Ophthalmology. He has been chosen as one amongst the Top 2% of the Researchers in Ophthalmology by the Stanford University, USA. For the past 1 year, he has also taken the additional responsibility as the Finance Director of Aravind Eye Care System.
Presentation Synopsis
HM6: Infinite vision: The Story Behind Aravind Eye Hospitals
Many US cities have lost their safety-net healthcare systems, which has had devastating effects on the most vulnerable communities. The largest municipal system, NYC Health + Hospitals, was in dire straits with a $1.6 billion structural deficit and multiple voices calling for hospital closures. A new leadership team took over NYC H+H in 2018, determined to save NYC’s safety-net. They found a punitive and defeated culture, staff suffering from learned helplessness and low morale, and a system in a negative spiral. Changing the culture was going to be the most difficult challenge.
Determined to put the focus back on our most precious resource, our staff, the team worked to rebuild trust and psychological safety through bringing humanism back into the system, reinforcing a kind but just culture, and empowering transformation to happen from the bottom up. In less than five years, the structural deficit is closed, NYC H+H played an outsized role in NYC’s COVID-19 pandemic response, patient volumes are at record levels, and the system is once again thriving. Attendees can learn a framework for building and sustaining a positive culture.
Presentation Synopsis
HM11: Building A Purpose Driven Inclusive Care Giving Organisation
Aravind has successfully transformed from being a single eye clinic in a small city in India to become the largest eye care delivery system in the world in a matter of around 45 years. A strong ethical mindset with an efficient cost effective delivery model has helped achieve this capability. Taking responsibility for the provision of ophthalmic eye care to those in need, irrespective of their capacity to pay has been the single driving force for this transformation to happen. The organization strongly believes that a prescription never cures the disease and effective strategies have to be deployed so that the intellectual knowledge of the medical personnel is fully utilized by the person in need. It is natural, that conflicts do arise in the pursuit of this journey with very broad agenda. This talk would address the practical difficulties faced in this journey, understanding and resolving various conflicts and the measures taken to fulfil the organization’s mission of eliminating needless blindness globally.