Eye Screening of School Students by Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya

This project was started in the year 2011. The Tezpur Family Eye Clinic is also a community based comprehensive clinic having the infrastructure for comprehensive eye examination, treatment and conducting screening camps in rural areas and in the Tea Estates. Till date, 49 screening camps have been organized, primarily in the tea garden areas and 2746 patients have been transported to SSDN Main, Guwahati, for free surgeries and other treatments.

1. No. of Eye Screening Camps –408
2. No. of Schools covered – 408
3. No. of School children screened – 56901
4. No. of School children with eye problem - ‘Amblyopia’ – 4369
5. No. of School children from these camps treated at SSDN – 1313

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Screening Program
‘Diabetic Mellitus’ is a major cause of avoidable blindness in both the developing and developed countries. Patients with diabetes are 25 times more vulnerable to become blind than non-diabetic patients. Good glycemic control arrests the development and generation of ‘Diabetic Retinopathy’ and prevents vision loss. Under this project, SSDN conducts Diabetic Retinopathy screening not only in Assam, but in Meghalaya and Tripura as well. In 2016, Screening camps were conducted in Shillong, Tura and Jowai of Meghalaya and at Dharmanagar of Tripura, free of cost.

UK BASED SMART INDIA STUDY (Statistical Modeling and Risk Assessment of Type 2 Diabetes complications in India):
SMART INDIA STUDY is a UK based research project supported by the RESEARCH COUNCIL OF UNITED KINGDOM (RCUK)
India has the second largest number of people with diabetes in the world and this number is increasing every year. It is well known that people with diabetes are at a higher risk of having eye problems, heart attack/stroke and kidney disease. The ‘SMART INDIA STUDY’ is an All India Study which is being done to find out the burdens of pre-diabetes called Retinopathy. Under this study we have recruited 1000 beneficiaries from a special group of Karbi Tribes from Sonapur. For this purpose we asked a few questions which were recorded in a questionnaire. Blood pressure and a few anthropometric measurements were taken. All the people then, had finger prick blood test done and fundus photographs were taken by a simple Fundus Camera. Some additional blood tests and urine test was done for a subset of people. It is possible that this study could determine that one has diabetes and/or its associated disorders. In India, this study was carried out in collaboration with MADRAS DIABETES RESEARCH FOUNDATION (MDRF), Chennai.

SSDN – ORBIS Project on Childhood Blindness
The SSDN-ORBIS project was executed with the aim to develop infrastructure and human resources in the hospital as well as in the field and extension and promotion of pediatric eye care services in the North East. Under this project, the pediatric eye care service was modernized with human resource training, upgradation and addition of latest instruments and equipment. This is the only tertiary pediatric eye care unit in the North-Eastern region of the country equipped with Ocular Cancer Therapy for the children, ROP management and all types of pediatric eye care management. Besides this different welfare activities were also undertaken at Community level, under this project.