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2000 — 2010
Tripura Vision Centre Project
Vision for All A Tele-ophthalmology project undertaken in Tripura ensures primary and preventive eye care services to rural citizens
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HO estimates blindness rate in the rest of the world is about 0.3% while in India it is 1.1 percent. The report says that 80 percent of diseases that causes blindness are curable or preventable by nature. Keeping in view, Tripura has initiated Tripura Vision Centre Project from November 21, 2006, it’s a Teleophthalmology project aimed at offering primary and preventive eye care services to rural citizens of Tripura adopting advances in medical sciences, bio- medical engineering and its convergence with Information and Communication Technology. The Vision Centre is a comprehensive model for providing primary and preventive eye care in a decentralized manner using the benefits of ICT integrated with the medical eye care solutions. The model empowered trained paramedics or ophthalmic assistants to provide eye care services at the grass root level. All patients visiting the vision centre are completely examined by the ophthalmic assistant and the medical record is uploaded electronically for doctor’s live tele-consultation from the base hospital in Agartala. This project enables quality healthcare in the existing system and can serve as a model that can be replicated or adapted by other states in India.
Fact File n This initiative is first of its kind in the country particularly in the North Eastern India n The project serves a rural population size of 3,432,000 people in remote areas spread across 40 blocks of four districts in Tripura
January 2011 < www.ehealthonline.org <
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