Released on = May 18, 2007, 1:14 pm

Press Release Author = Prof BR Natarajan

Industry = Healthcare

Press Release Summary = Hope is like a road in a country where there was never a
road but when many people start walking on it, the road comes into existence.

Press Release Body = For millions of people around the world, receiving quality eye
care is an enormous struggle. Lack of good educational programs in Optometry and
poor practitioner-to-patient ratio adds to the woes of developing countries. With
nearly 25 % of the global blindness data, India has just about 3000 Optometrists
which is highly inadequate.

For every 100,000 population in India, we have 1.50 Ophthalmologists to 0.60
Optometrists while Australia has 3.30 : 12.50, Canada has 3.30 : 10.26, New Zealand
2 : 10, UK 1.06 : 13.27 and USA 5.70 to 10.99. This shows where we stand in quality
eye care. Blindness prevention needs Optometry and with the population of India
hitting the billion mark, approximately 100,000 more Optometrists are needed to
adequately care for those in need.

BITS Pilani in addition to a MS Medical Laboratory Technology programme, has been
offering for the past over a decade BS and MPhil degree Programs in Optometry in
collaboration with the Elite School of Optometry, a constituent institution of the
Medical Research Foundation established by Sankara Nethralaya, the Chennai based
premier eye care and research centre. For the past 7 years BITS, Pilani has also
been offering the BS Optometry program in collaboration with Bausch & Lomb School of
Optometry established by the L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad.

In the mid 60s, the Physician Assistant (PA) program was developed by Dr Eugene
Stead, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Duke University, North Carolina,
USA to train health care professionals for rural areas which faced dwindling numbers
of physicians and nurses. Physician Assistants are medically trained professionals
who by working closely with their supervising physicians can provide comprehensive
health care services and quality medical care and be important members of the health
care delivery team of any nation.

BITS Pilani has been offering for the past over a decade BS Physician Assistant
programme in collaboration with Madras Medical Mission, Chennai and for the last two
years with Frontier Lifeline, Chennai. The objective of the PA program of BITS,
Pilani is to prepare students to provide quality care for a diverse population in a
changing health care environment through an education based in Modern Medicine with
a focus on Holistic Thinking.

BITS Pilani along with its collaborators indeed has been walking the Health Care
Delivery Road in India today through the ranked among the best Optometry, Physician
Assistant and Medical Laboratory Technology Programmes. Details of above programmes
are available in www.bits-pilani.ac.in/dlp-home

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani is a Leading University in
India today offering degrees in Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Sciences,
Engineering Technology, Information Systems, General Studies, Finance, etc presently
at Pilani, Dubai, Goa campuses and in the near future at Hyderabad campus. BITS
Pilani also offers an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast
spectrum of Indian corporates.

Web Site = http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in

Contact Details = Prof BR Natarajan
Dean Work Integrated Learning Programmes
BITS, Pilani (Rajasthan) 333031 India
Phone Office 91-1596-242210
Fax 91-1596-244183
EMail:brnt@bits-pilani.ac.in