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GUEST EDITORIAL
Year : 2020  |  Volume : 68  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 299-300

The MM Joshi model of community eye care - Reaching the unreached


Founder Chairman, MM Joshi Eye Institute, Gokul Road, Hosur, Hubballi - 58 0021, Karnataka, India

Date of Web Publication20-Jan-2020

Correspondence Address:
M M Joshi
Founder Chairman, MM Joshi Eye Institute, Gokul Road, Hosur, Hubballi - 58 0021, Karnataka
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_62_20

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How to cite this article:
Joshi M M. The MM Joshi model of community eye care - Reaching the unreached. Indian J Ophthalmol 2020;68:299-300

How to cite this URL:
Joshi M M. The MM Joshi model of community eye care - Reaching the unreached. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 2020 [cited 2024 Mar 28];68:299-300. Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?2020/68/2/299/276159



It has been an incredible journey! Way back in 1967, as a young ophthalmologist with a master degree from Mumbai, I started my professional career in the heartland of North Karnataka which was lacking in even basic eye care services. My initial practice consisted of a two room clinic which grew and transformed in 5 decades into a chain of super speciality eye care institutions catering to millions of patients.

Our institution, Padma Nayanalaya, which later came to be known as M. M. Joshi Eye Institute, advocates a policy of quality with equity and has created a community friendly model for sustainable eye care in north Karnataka. This Institution believes in two mutually inclusive domains, complimenting each other. First being uncompromising quality eye care with cutting edge technology and the second, charitable scalable eye care for the poor and underserved. M. M. Joshi Eye Institute houses every conceivable latest investigation and treatment gadget of ophthalmology and also treats a massive number of patients on 'not for profit' basis, still proving to be a self-sustainable endeavour.

The strength of M. M. Joshi Eye Institute has been community outreach programmes in the entire region of North Karnataka. In 53 years of ophthalmic practice, we have conducted more than 2000 free eye camps, having screened nearly 2 million individuals, of which 3 lakh have been operated for sight restoring eye surgeries using the state-of-the-art techniques [Figure 1]. Until 1994, conventional outreach camps comprised of screening patients for cataract in rural areas, surgical management of cataracts, followed by free postoperative medications and subsidized dispensing of spectacles on site. Breakthrough happened with an introduction of a separate establishment, “Shri Guru Mahipatiraj (SGM) Charitable Trust Hospital,” which was established with a sole belief of providing quality eye care for patients from underprivileged sectors [Figure 2]. With infrastructure and facilities at par with the base hospital, trust hospital provides free yet the highest quality of services to the lower sections of society.
Figure 1: Outreach camps and surgeries on site by Padmashree Dr. M. M. Joshi

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Figure 2: Surgeries at a charitable trust hospital

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Childhood blindness has been the thrust area for SGM trust as the socioeconomic implications of childhood blindness are enormous. The game changer has been our collaboration with the Department of Public Instruction (Education Department) under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme for comprehensive eye care services of Government school children of various districts of Karnataka, totally free of cost. The modus operandi of our “School Sight Programme” is to train teachers of Government schools to detect eye problems in school children and refer them to the base hospital. As of date, approximately 2 lakh children have been screened, of whom more than 2000 children have been treated surgically on charitable basis and nearly 20,000 spectacles have been dispensed. As a continued effort, training of Anganwadi teachers is being done to detect visual disability in children below the age of six years as this is the segment of population which is uncovered by any NGO or the government. Good work always attracts likeminded stake holders. Orbis International picked us as the ninth partner in the country for collaborative work in the field of childhood blindness.

India is deemed as the world's capital of diabetes. In an attempt to raise awareness about diabetic retinopathy in high risk individuals, we have initiated a pilot project of “Hub and Spoke Model” in urban slums of Hubli. Our volunteers do door to door survey using a specialised dedicated mobile app for data collections. Subsequently, ophthalmologists screen these patients for retinopathy at the “Spoke” site, and those who had treatable retinopathy are referred to the base hospital, the “Hub”, where they are treated on charitable basis. Till date, more than 52,000 individuals have been screened successfully.

To increase the penetration into rural community and to create avoidable blindness free areas in north Karnataka, we have established 15 vision centres in collaboration with Operation Eyesight Universal and will be expanding with three more in the first quarter of 2020. In 2018, Operation Eye sight Universal with M. M. Joshi Eye Institute has declared a village in Ron district 'avoidable blindness free', and four more villages achieved the same status in the year to follow.

Despite all the infrastructure, access to the facilities was a major inconvenience to the remote rural population. To make quality affordable eye care reach the unreached, we launched “Netra Vahini” – a mobile eye care system [Figure 3]. Netravahini houses an autorefractometer, non-contact tonometer, slit lamp, fundus camera and perimetry. As of now, a well-trained ophthalmologist covers three villages per day through Netravahini, drugs and spectacles are dispensed on site whereas surgical cases get transported to base hospital.
Figure 3: Mobile eye care- “Netravahini”

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When I look back at the feats accomplished so far, it fills me with a sense of purpose and a passion to rededicate myself to this noble endeavor. Nobody can achieve anything alone. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a team who share the same emotion and sense of altruism. The job done is very little and the future lies ahead with multitude of wonderful possibilities. To quote Helen Keller, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”. So let us sharpen our vision for the blind brethren and make 2020 more meaningful ophthalmologically.



About the author








Dr. Mahipathi Madhwacharya Joshi

Padma Shri Dr. Mahipathi Madhwacharya Joshi was born in 1935 in Nimbal village in Bijapur district, Karnataka, India. He attained training in medicine from Baroda and post-graduation from Mumbai. After a long thought, he decided to settle down in Hubli – Dharwad as his 'Karma Bhumi'. At that point in time perhaps he was the first postgraduate in Ophthalmology in Karnataka state. He was the first to start an exclusive eye hospital in the region – Padma Nayanalaya. It was a humble beginning, followed by a sustained long struggle. With his grit and determination and decades of tireless hard work, the hospital has now grown into a major eye care centre in India – MM Joshi Eye Institute, with the components of clinical services, training, research and community outreach. Regular CME programs by MM Joshi Eye Institute are unique in design and flavor and offer excellent educational opportunities. The Institute runs BSc Optometry, DNB Ophthalmology and postgraduate fellowship courses. Dr Joshi is uncompromising on equity and quality of patient care, and has a very humanitarian hands-on approach towards the employees. Among hundreds of honors and awards that he has received, he is particularly fond of the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by the All India Ophthalmological Society and the prestigious “Padma Shri” Award from the Government of India in recognition of his yeoman service in the field of community eye care.






    Figures

  [Figure 1], [Figure 2], [Figure 3]


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