Community Eye Health
International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care
The International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care (ICARE) was founded in 1998 and is an integral part of the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI).
The work of ICARE has three major objectives:
- To develop good quality eye care services in those parts of the country that have limited or no access to it, as well as in other parts of the developing world.
- To train all cadres of manpower needed in the area of eye health in these areas.
- To initiate and participate in the planning of eye health programs in the developing world through the use of reliable epidemiological information about visual impairment among the population.
Community eye health extends the individual patient-based traditional clinical practice of ophthalmology to the assessment and facilitation of good eye health for the population as a whole. The role of the community eye health specialist includes any or all of the following:
- Assessing the eye care needs of communities and populations,
- Designing and implementing eye care programs,
- Management of programs,
- Evaluation of eye care programs,
- Development of community eye health courses,
- Advocacy for community eye health and influencing health policy, and
- Epidemiological research into visual impairment and the primary eye diseases, clinical trials and health service research.