Cognizant Foundation commemorates its milestone of screening 5000+ preterm babies & treatment of 500+ preterm babies for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) within Odisha in partnership with L V Prasad Eye Institute
Bhubaneswar: Cognizant Foundation India under its flagship programme ‘Sight4All: Enabling Lives through Timely Eyecare’ has partnered with L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) to screen for and treat Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) among preterm babies to prevent childhood blindness.Inline with our purpose-driven commitment to the region, this partnership between Cognizant Foundation India and LVPEI have facilitated the screening of over 11500 preterm babies and zero-cost treatment has been provided to1270 babiesfrom underserved sections of society in 15 districts of Odisha and 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, over the last 5 years. Since September 2019, the project in Odisha has screened more than 5000+ pre-term babies, out of which more than500+ pre-term babies have received treatment in the form of surgery, laser, or injections.
The ROP Screening & treatment project trains pediatric health personnel to ensure continuity of ROP care in the government hospitals. The Retina specialists from LVPEI’s tertiary centre in Bhubaneswar travel to the secondary centres and treat the babies with laser, injections or surgery as may be the case. The real-time ROP tele-screening (RRT) is a groundbreaking initiative that involves imaging the infants by paramedical staff and synchronous monitoring of the images, analysis, and parent counselling by an ROP specialist linked to the screening site in real-time over a video conferencing software. The model developed in this project has received wide recognition from pediatricians and ophthalmologists.
“Preventing avoidable blindness is a key focus area at Cognizant Foundation. We are pleased to partner with L V Prasad Eye Institute in this pioneering initiative that delivers best-in-class care to the pre-term baby leveraging technology while continuously enhancing the quality of eye care in the government hospitals.” Deepak Prabhu Matti, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant Foundation.
“It was great partnering with Cognizant Foundation on this initiative. It has enabled focused training of paediatric health personnel for the continuity of ROP care in government hospitals, resulting in screening thousands of babies and preventing a lifetime of blindness for the babies diagnosed with ROP,” said Dr. Tapas Ranjan Padhi, Faculty, Vitreoretinal and Pediatric Retina Services, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and the anchor for the initiative.
Cognizant Foundation India and L V Prasad Eye Institute together remain dedicated to ensuring accessible and comprehensive eye care services in the state of Odisha.