The Hon'ble Governor of West Bengal, Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi,launched a new initiative by Sankara Netralaya,Kolkata the mobile teleophthalmology community service Project.

To facilitate the community ophthalmology work Sankara Nethralaya is introducing three mobile vans that will be both for tele-opthalmology as well as for spectacle dispensing in the villages. The mobile vans that support community work would be fully equipped for eye examination in the village itself and images of the eye examination will be transmitted further evaluation will be brought to the main hospital.

A lot more patients can be served by this approach since many of them may not need to visit the main campus but can be advised via satellite connection itself. We solicit the help of social service organizations to help us to conduct these camps in the villages.

Each van will have the facility to examine patients with the basic required equipment. An optometrist and a social worker will be in the van in addition to the driver. The van will also have facility to make spectacles as prescribed on examination.

The glasses can be made and delivered in the village itself in a short time saving their need for the villagers to travel to the nearby town. Medical advice is also made possible by beaming the images of the eye to the main hospital where a qualified ophthalmologist will look at there and advise to the extent possible.

Any patient needing more advanced examination or treatment will be encouraged to travel to Kolkata for investigations and treatment at the main centre. The vans will go thorough villages by turns and attempt to cover as large an area as possible.

The vans will also have facilities to educate the people on common eye ailments and ocular hygiene. Eye donation awareness will be also improved among the people by appropriate measures including screening of movies that propagate the idea.

Further, the tele-ophthalmology team would be involved in educating the local community about eye care in general. Training of teachers in schools to identify gross visual impairment in the children would also be a part of the project.