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This book describes community ophthalmology professionals in South Asia who demonstrate social entrepreneurship in global health to help the rural poor. Their innovations contested economic and scientific norms, and spread from India and Nepal outwards to other countries in Africa and Asia, as well as the United States, Australia, and Finland. This feminist postcolonial global ethnography illustrates how these innovations have resulted in dual socio-technical systems to solve the problem of avoidable blindness. Policymakers and activists might use this example of how to avoid Schumacher's critique of low labor, large scale and implement Gandhi's philosophy of good for all.

The medical specialty of primary care addresses the basic and fundamental healthcare needs of individuals, the family, and the larger community. Its reach starts at pre-conception and extends to global health and medical issues. Primary care issues include chronic medical problems, surgery, and community-wide health threats such as worldwide global pandemics, terrorism in all of its forms, and domestic violence. This book reviews eight topics including chronic medical issues like chronic fatigue syndrome, the response of primary care clinicians to global pandemics, and how patients and physicians are symbolized in comics. From top experts in the field, this book will improve your ability to practice primary care and to appreciate the broad demands placed upon primary care clinicians.

The ability to see deeply affects how human beings perceive and interpret the world around them. For most people, eyesight is part of everyday communication, social activities, educational and professional pursuits, the care of others, and the maintenance of personal health, independence, and mobility. Functioning eyes and vision system can reduce an adult's risk of chronic health conditions, death, falls and injuries, social isolation, depression, and other psychological problems. In children, properly maintained eye and vision health contributes to a child's social development, academic achievement, and better health across the lifespan. The public generally recognizes its reliance on sight and fears its loss, but emphasis on eye and vision health, in general, has not been integrated into daily life to the same extent as other health promotion activities, such as teeth brushing; hand washing; physical and mental exercise; and various injury prevention behaviors. A larger population health approach is needed to engage a wide range of stakeholders in coordinated efforts that can sustain the scope of behavior change. The shaping of socioeconomic environments can eventually lead to new social norms that promote eye and vision health. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow proposes a new population-centered framework to guide action and coordination among various, and sometimes competing, stakeholders in pursuit of improved eye and vision health and health equity in the United States. Building on the momentum of previous public health efforts, this report also introduces a model for action that highlights different levels of prevention activities across a range of stakeholders and provides specific examples of how population health strategies can be translated into cohesive areas for action at federal, state, and local levels.

The Aravind Eye Care System, based in India, is the world's largest provider of high-quality eye care. It is also one of the world's most incredible and revolutionary organizations. This is the first book to explore Aravind's history and the distinctive philosophies, practices, and commitments that are the keys to its success.

This book, in a concise format, explains how to perform manual small incision cataract surgery. The procedure is broken down into the chief elements and described in a step by step manner. Besides the description of the procedure, the book covers indications, necessary supplies, preparation, complication management, and postoperative care. The authors are experts from around the world, and the book will be of value both for surgeons new to this technique and for experienced surgeons who need a review of the procedure. While phacoemulsification surgery has now become the standard of care, understanding how to perform manual extracapsular cataract extractions competently is crucial when faced with complications during phacoemulsification surgery, when operating in a region of the world without access to phacoemulsification or femtosecond lasers, or when a manual approach may be a better choice for the patient.

Just a thousand years ago, India was dotted with universities across its length and breadth, where international students flocked to gain credentials in advanced education. This illustrated book describes how these multi-disciplinary centers of learning existed in several forms such as forest universities, brick-and-mortar universities and temple universities. It examines the funding for these citadels of learning and their graduation ceremonies. The process by which India’s ancient systems of education helped to fuel a knowledge revolution around the world with its manuscripts, forming the basis for monographs and academic papers, is explained with references. The marauding incursions by Muslim invaders, which disrupted the idyllic world of university learning in India, followed by European colonization, which led to further erosion and degeneration of India’s traditional learning systems, have been taken up in some detail. Readers will get a snapshot view of India's education system down the ages from ancient to modern times.