The 22nd Dr E Vaithilingam Memorial Scientific Session – Chennai, India

The theme of Dr. E.V Memorial Scientific Session was “Evidence-based Optometry”. More than 250 optometry students, practitioners, and educators attended the two-day conference in Chennai held on 9^th & 10^th March 2024.

The inaugural session was by Dr. Hema Radhakrishnan on “Myopia development, progression, and management” where she gave a detailed perspective on the behavior of a Myopic eye, myopia management, and its importance.

A significant event organized on the first day of the conference was the launch of the Myopia awareness animation videos conceptualized by the OCI Myopia Task Force. The animation was developed by Cosmos Maya and supported by the industry giants Essilor, Hoya, Menicon, Seed & Zeiss. The mascot “Sunny the Optometrist” in the animation film spreads awareness in a fun and engaging way. Ms Lakshmi Shinde (CEO, OCI) introduced the work OCI has been doing in terms of advocacy and propagating myopia awareness over the past decade. The release of the film was a great success, with everyone appreciating the content of the animated film and the efforts of OCI. OCI took this opportunity to thank the industry for their support.

OCI actively took part in the conference and two abstracts from OCI were selected for oral presentation. The abstracts were “Vision for a Cause – An Effort to Standardize School Eye Screenings” and “Assessment of OCI’s Unsung Heroes’ Initiative – Empowering Young Optometrists through Rural Entrepreneurship Opportunities”. Both the presentations were presented by Ms Paula Mukherjee and were received well by the audience and the jury.

The second half of the session was even more intriguing with a panel discussion on Indian Optometry over the century. The discussion revolved around the past, present, and future of the profession by notable people in the profession Dr. Adithya Goyal, Dr Anuradha N, and

Dr Dharani. Dr. Rashima & Dr. Anuradha took an eye-opening session on “How NOT to submit an abstract”.

The second day of the session focused on Geriatric Care. Eminent educators, researchers, and public health experts namely Dr. Srinivas Marmamula, Dr Krishna Kumar Ramani, and

Ms. S Ramya spoke on topics sensitizing the audience towards providing special attention to the elderly population. Dr. Hari Shankar presented cases where an optometrist can play a role in providing a holistic health establishment and not just eye care.

All the sessions were engaging with pertinent topics delivered by eminent speakers. The conference ended with an award ceremony for the winners of the oral and poster presentations.