An year long silver jubilee celebrations of the Chennai based Sankara Netralaya, one among the premier eye care hospital network in the country, will begin tomorrow when Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, the President of India, launch a unique mobile tele-opthalmology unit to service the rural population.

According to Dr. S.S.Badrinath, Chairman and President of Sankara Netralaya, which has treated over four million outpatients and performed over two and a half lakh surgeries, when the President would switch on a button at the Music Academy hall in Chennai, the unit at the hospital would travel to a village in Kancheepuram for a free eye-check up. Armed with satellite connectivity, eye examination at the village would be beamed to the audience at the hospital and the hall, and doctors would offer live consultancy from the hospital. The president would also speak to the people of the village, said Badrinath.

As part of the celebrations, President will also inaugurate the Brachytherapy project for treating ocular tumours, developed by the hospital in association with the scientists of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.

At the function, Tamilnadu Governor P.S.Rammohan Rao will release a book on ‘Sankara Netralaya Preferred Practice Pattern’. The book gives the hospital’s guidelines for eye care to the 60 odd consultants of the hospital. The Governor will also inaugurate the molecular biology and genetics project funded by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The project is to study the genetic susceptibility of Indians to cataract, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, and to develop molecular diagnostics to prevent or postpone the onset of the diseases. The project will also explore the possibility of reducing the medical cost on cataract surgeries and diagnosis, amounting to an annual spending of Rs.530 crores, with advanced diagnostic services.

Sankara Netralaya is also opening a paediatric ophthalmology-training centre established with support from Orbis International from the U.S. The centre will mainly act as a state of the art resource and training centre for doctors in the field of ophthalmology.