National ROP Project

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a important cause of childhood blindness in India. Lack of awareness among ophthalmologists and pediatricians causes many babies to develop advanced stages of ROP and results in poor visual outcomes. There is an urgent need to spread awareness about ROP and develop new screening programs in India to combat ROP related childhood blindness.

Dr. R.P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (RPC), AIIMS (All India Institute for Medical Sciences), New Delhi has collaborated with Sightsavers India to launch the National ROP Project. This is continuation of the Phase I project to spread ROP awareness through conducting 12 ROP workshops across India in 2009-2010.

Primary Goal

To ensure that all children with potential to developing ROP are detected early and provided timely treatment that prevents them from getting visually impaired.

Specific Goals

1. To build capacity of the 8 regional collaborating centers to further promote the ROP services in their respective region.
2. Regional centres conduct yearly ROP workshops to spread ROP awareness in their areas to reduce childhood blindness
3. Develop web- based ROP registry and link all 8 centres/subcenters for contributing their data on ROP management.
4. 8 Collaborating centre train pairs of Ophthalmologist and Pediatricians to start new ROP screening centres.

Phase 1 Workshops (2008-2010)

In phase I of the RPC-Sightsavers collaboration (2008-2010), Prof Rajvardhan Azad and faculty from RPC/AIIMS as well as invited faculty from reputed institutions conducted awareness workshops at 12 cities across India.

The objective was to spread awareness about ROP among ophthalmologists and pediaticians / neonatologists to encourages them to start ROP screening programs and reduce ROP related childhood blindness in India. Over 650 doctors were trained.

1. Pune 1-2 November 2008
2. Mumbai 11 January 2009
3. Lucknow 25-26 April 2009
4. Delhi 25-26 July 2009
5. Belgaum 29-30 August 2009
6. Kolkata 4 October 2009
7. Trichy 6-7 March 2010
8. Cuttack 20-21 March 2010
9. Sangli 24-25 July 2010
10. Mussoorie 29 August 2010
11. Bangalore 5 September 2010
12. Ranchi 2-3 October 2010

Training Centres

National ROP Training Centers:

1. Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi- 110029
2. Aravind Eye Hospital, Avinashi Road, Coimbatore 641014
3. PBMA’s H. V. Desai Eye Hospital, 93, Tarwadevasti, Mohammadwadi, Pune 411060

Collaborating Regional Centres

1. PBMA’s H. V. Desai Eye Hospital, 93, Tarwadevasti, Mohammadwadi, Pune 411060
2. Little Flower Hospital & Research Centre, Angamaly, Ernakulam Dist., Kerala – 683572
3. Eye Q Prakash Netra Kendr, NH – 2, Vipulkhand IV, Gomtinagar, Lucknow 226010
4. JPM Rotary Club of Cuttack Eye Hospital & Research Institute, CDA, Sector –VI, Market Nagar, Cuttack, , Odisha -753014.
5. Sankara Eye Hospital, Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust, Varthur Main Road, Kundalahalli Gate, Bangalore – 560037.
6. Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital, 10 Dr. U. N. Brahmachari Street, Kolkata – 700017
7. Drishti Eye Institute, 16 Subhash Road (Opposite Hotel Pacific), Dehradun -248001
8. Joseph Eye Hospital (TELC), Institute Of Ophthalmology, Post Box No.138, Madurai Road, Melapudur, Trichy – 620 001

Call for ROP Training

To support the goal to build capacity of the 8 regional collaborating centers to further promote the ROP services in their respective region, the project invites trainees interested to start new ROP screening programs in these regions to collaborate with these regional ROP centers. Following are the training Eligibility Criteria

Educational Qualification – MS / MD / Diploma

• Ophthalmologist – Well versed in indirect ophthalmoscopy; retina training preferable; ROP screening experience preferable
• Paediatrician – Running neonatology unit managing premature babies

Willing to complete ROP training

Ophthalmologist – Will need to train over minimum of 10 days (including minimum of 20 hours training), and trainees should correctly conduct at least 20 ROP screenings. More experienced trainees (like those already trained in ROP/ pediatric retina specialists) may train over minimum of 5 days (including minimum of 10 hours), and trainees should have correctly conduct at least 10 ROP screenings. The training must be completed in 3 months. This lesser schedule and training completion will be at the discretion of the centres, Training will be done at regional centre or can also be done at national ROP training centers for continuous 3 weeks followed by 1 week training at regional collaborating centre

Paediatricians – complete training over minimum of 3 days (minimum 6 hours of training) over 1 month at at regional centres.

• While pair training is essential, Ophthalmologist and Pediatrician training may not necessarily train at the same time
• Followed by short examination and certification
• Trainees will bear own cost of travel and stay

Other Criteria

• The PAIR will need to start NEW viable screening program with support from one regional collaborating centre
• Willing for regular data sharing, registry development, statistical data evaluation, audit, site visit and monitoring by Regional centres for 1-3 years.
• Trainees will be provided hands on screening training, Retcam (where available) assisted case evaluations, ROP textbooks, training materials, registry forms and performance report forms.
• Regional collaborating centre will provide long term support for screening, training and referral.

Educational Material Provided

Pediatricians can also enroll in online sick newborn training course at ONTOP. A list of provided educational materials is attached.

Application Process:

Interested candidates are requested to write directly to the centers.

Training Materials Provided

TEAM

R.P.Centre, AIIMS

• Prof. R. V. Azad – Founder Member
• Prof Yog Raj Sharma – Chief, R. P. Centre, AIIMS
• Dr Parijat Chandra, Professor Ophthalmology, Email: parijatchandra@gmail.com

Sightsavers

• Prasanna Kumar – Sightsavers
• Ms Amaresh Pandey, Programme Officer, Sightsavers India, 45, Phase III ( Modi Mill), Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi-110020; Email: apandey@sightsavers.org; Website: www.sightsaversindia.in

Expert Advisors

• Dr Ashok Deorari – AIIMS, New Delhi
• Dr Ramesh Agarwal – AIIMS, New Delhi
• Dr Praveen Vashisht – RPC, AIIMS, New Delhi
• Dr Mangat Dogra – PGIMER, Chandigarh
• Dr Subhadra Jalali – LVPEI, Hyderabad
• Dr Narendran V – Aravind Eye,Coimbatore
• Dr Pramod Bhende – Shankar Netralaya, Chennai

Regional Training Centres

Interested candidates for training may directly contact collaborating centres

• Dr Sucheta Kulkarni (Pune) - drsucheta.kulkarni@gmail.com, desaieyehospital@hvdeh.org
• Dr Thomas Cherian (Angamaly) - tcherian@rediffmail.com
• Dr Saurabh Singh (Lucknow) - drsaurabhms@gmail.com
• Dr. Santosh Kumar Mahapatra (Cuttack) - santu_k74@rediffmail.com, jpm@jpmrotary.org
• Dr Rajesh Ramanjulu (Bangalore) - drragraj@gmail.com
• Dr Abhijit Chattopadhyay (Kolkata) - abhijitc@gmail.com
• Dr Saurabh Luthra (Dehradun) - drsaurabhluthra@gmail.com
• Dr. M Pratibha (Trichy) - rmojeh@yahoo.in