L V Prasad Eye Institute wins GAEBA’s Inaugural National Award
Announced at the World Eye Bank Symposiumtoday, July 21, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI)with their eye banks, was named as GAEBA’s inaugural National Awardee under a new award program dedicated to celebrating the achievements of the eye bank sector.
A panel of independent international peers selected LV Prasad Eye Institute from a global pool of candidates because they demonstrated significant achievements in the promotion of eye banking and professional exchange and worked tireless to improve the quality of corneal processing and thus patient care in their country.
The panel recognised that L V Prasad Eye Institute had exceptional leadership, exported best practice, and helped build capacity in low resource countries. The Institute contributed tremendously to eye banking throughout their region and beyond with the breadth and width necessary to address corneal blindness in their country. This National Award was also given for showing the openness and willingness to collaborate with others and for their commitment to training and supporting other eye banks in the country.
Celebrating this achievement, Dr Sunita Chaurasia, Senior Cornea Faculty and Medical Director of Ramayamma International Eye Bank, L V Prasad Eye Institute said, “Eye banking is an integral part of L V Prasad Eye Institute. The Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) at LVPEI’s Hyderabad campus in India, the first in the LVPEI Eye Bank Network, was established in 1989. Since its inception, RIEB has focused on setting high-quality standards and being innovative, while rapidly increasing its supply of transplantable corneas within the LVPEI network centres and other eye hospitals across the country. The LVPEI network Eye Banks in India – the Mohsin Eye Bank in Visakhapatnam, Drushti Daan Eye Bank in Bhubaneswar, and TKEB in Vijayawada – complement the vision of Eye banking at LVPEI. We feel humbled to receive the GAEBA’s Inaugural National Award and extend our sincere thanks to GAEBA for this honour. We dedicate this award to our cornea donor families, our partner hospitals, and our supporters from across the globe who have made this incredible journey possible. We will continue to collaborate and ceaselessly work towards alleviating corneal blindness in India and the world”.
About L V Prasad Eye Institute
Established in 1987, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness, is a comprehensive eye health facility. The Institute has ten functional arms to its areas of operations: Clinical Services, Education, Research, Vision Rehabilitation, Rural and Community Eye Health, Eye Banking, Advocacy and Policy Planning, Capacity Building, Innovation and Product Development. The LVPEI Eye Care Network has 260+ Centres spread across the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka in India. The institute’s mission is to provide equitable and quality eye care to all sections of society. The LVPEI’s five-tier ‘Eye Health Pyramid’ model covering all sections of society right from the villages to the city, provides high quality and comprehensive – prevention, curative, and rehabilitation – eye care to all. It has served over 34.14 million, with more than 50% of them entirely free of cost, irrespective of the complexity of care needed.
The establishment of the Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) at LVPEI’s Hyderabad campus in 1989 with the initial financial support from the family of Gunnam Ramayamma (promoters of Nava Bharat Ventures) and technical support from the International Federation of Eye Banks of Baltimore, USA, was primarily to bridge the gap between the need and availability of quality donor corneas and to create a Centre of Excellence in eye banking. RIEB today has developed into a major global resource centre and Centre of Excellence in eye banking. It is also one of the major training centres for eye banking personnel and research. In addition to RIEB, the LVPEI Eye Bank Network comprises Eye Banks across the three tertiary eye care centres of LVPEI in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, and Vijayawada. The focus now is on setting up Eye Banks in other states of India where they are needed the most.
About the GAEBA Award Program
This is the first time the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations (GAEBA) have offered an award program. GAEBA identified that there were limited opportunities to award, recognise and celebrate those working in this field who tirelessly support donors and recipients around the world. By developing the new program, GAEBA can provide that platform and help open up new opportunities for those engaged in the field and support the advancement of donation and transplant services.
The award program will be offered again in 2023.
Find out about this year’s International Award Winner!