Policy framework for advancing eye banking and cornea transplantation

Sharma, Namrata; Nathawat, Rakhi; Parihar, Jitendra Kumar Singh

doi:10.4103/ijo.ijo_2341_21

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Understanding the full extent of benefits is critical since it will serve as a powerful drive for donations. Well over 50% of the families of the deceased can be motivated to donate their eyes by a well-trained eye donation counsellor [ 10 ], and thus, it is critical that due diligence be given to the development of such skilled personnel.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Positive reinforcement such as government or private initiatives will drive behaviors that will help to foster an organ donation culture. Policies mandating a structured dual counselling process, which would include an initial request made by the attending medical personnel, followed by a referral provided by an eye bank personnel at the sources for eye donation, would be extremely beneficial in converting pledges to actual donations, as it would ensure all healthcare facilities, emergency departments, morgues, and funeral homes to actively engage in the donation [ 10 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eye Donation: Awareness, Knowledge, Willingness, and Barriers among Paramedical and Allied Health Science Students at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India

Kacheri

Mudhol

Chougule

et al. 2022

The Scientific World Journal

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Background. Visual impairments have physical, emotional, social, and economical consequences and are a crucial element influencing one's quality of life. A total of 1.285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide of which 39 million are categorised as blind. These figures are startling, given that 80 percent of known vision impairments are either treatable or preventable. Corneal transplants appear to be our best hope for resolving this problem; however, a global shortage of available donors continues to dampen efforts addressing this issue. Methods. This two-year cross-sectional study employed a convenience sampling technique and a standardised questionnaire to survey 150 paramedical and allied health science students at a tertiary care teaching hospital and assessed the awareness, knowledge, willingness and barriers regarding eye donation. Results. The study revealed a 93.3% awareness rate of the donation procedure, of which 46% attributed their awareness to media sources. However, other aspects assessed had much lower awareness rates; when the eyes are donated (53.3%), optimal time period for retrieval of tissue/organ (54%), ideal part transplanted (54%), age limit not restricting donation (67%), donation by donors using spectacles (48%), confidentiality of the donor and recipient (54%), hospital having the facility of an eye bank (63%). 49 percent of the respondents were willing to pledge themselves as eye donors, and a majority of the unwilling respondents reported that familial opposition was the reason for their hesitation. Conclusion. Knowledge levels appear to be below expectations, and more effort is required to ensure that knowledge is imparted to our healthcare practitioners, who will then transfer this knowledge to the population, resulting in an increase in donation rates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye Donation: Awareness, Knowledge, Willingness, and Barriers among Paramedical and Allied Health Science Students at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India

Kacheri

Mudhol

Chougule

et al. 2022

The Scientific World Journal

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“…In 2018, the Indian Parliament passed an amendment to the Central Motor Vehicles Act, which ensured the recording of the donor status of the license holders. [ 27 ] This is currently enforced in a few states and has helped in the harvesting of healthy donor corneas.…”

Section: Evolution Over the Years [ Fig 5 ]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of eye banking in India – A review

Christy,

Bhadari,

Mathews

et al. 2023

Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

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Corneal blindness ranks third among the causes of blindness worldwide, after cataract and glaucoma. Corneal transplantation offers us a means to address this, and is currently the most commonly performed transplantation procedure worldwide – restoring the gift of sight to many an eye. Eye banks play a very important role in these procedures. India was quick to develop its own eye bank in 1945 soon after the launch of world’s first eye bank in 1944. The evolution over the past six decades has been tremendous, placing India on the top, with one of the largest eye-banking system in the world. As of 2023, around 740 members are registered under the Eye Bank Association of India. The highest-ever collection of 71,700 donor eyes was achieved in 2017-2018. The overall tissue utilisation rate ranged between 22 - 28 % for voluntary donations and 50% for hospital-based corneal retrieval programs. Though India has an excellent infrastructure and readiness for corneal transplantation surgery, the need of the hour is to create a strong and independent nodal system. It shall take care of the logistics and factor in technological advances – surgical and otherwise. Public awareness, a national corneal grid, and reducing the red-tape barriers, shall improve availability of grafts nationwide. This review aims to detail the evolution of eye banking in India, to provide a comprehensive understanding, and help the stakeholders focus on the road ahead to attain our targets faster.

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“…It has been shown that EDCs have achieved a 50% success rate in counseling, which effectively means they manage to convince one out of every two families they counsel for a donation. [ 2 7 8 9 ] In a survey, 43% of donor families mentioned that counseling by EDC addressed their concerns about eye donation and helped them decide. [ 2 ] Similar results have been reported from other countries as well.…”

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confidence: 99%

Eye Donation Counsellor Skill Evaluation Tool (EDC-SET): A step toward improved eye donation counseling

Nathawat,

Farooqui,

Majumdar

et al. 2023

Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

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Purpose: The expansion of the Hospital Corneal Retrieval Programme (HCRP) and the role of Eye Donation Counsellors (EDCs) have shown promising results in increasing donor cornea availability. To further enhance EDC competency and improve cornea availability for transplantation, the study proposes the Eye Donation Counsellor Skill Evaluation Tool (EDC‐SET). Key words: Competency assessment, corneal blindness, Eye Donation Counsellors (EDCs), eye health, Hospital Corneal Retrieval Programme (HCRP), skill evaluation. Methods: A competency framework for EDCs and a tool for evaluation of the competency level (EDC-SET) was designed, along with scripts for emulating realistic counselling scenarios. Independent assessors were trained on using EDC-SET and evaluated EDCs participating in role-plays based on the pre-designed scripts. EDCs were briefed a priori on the EDC-SET but not on the role play scripts which were used during evaluation. Results: We piloted the tool at a tertiary eye hospital, and it was found to capture EDC competency reliably. The study evaluated seven EDCs each assessed by two independent assessors. Conformity, kappa, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values were calculated to estimate the parameter‐wise reliability of the EDC‐SET. The results suggest that the scores from both assessors closely matched for most of the parameters, and overall, their ratings showed moderate agreement. The difficulty level of each parameter as assessed by the two assessors was also calculated. It was observed that most participants found “Initiation of the Case” and “Empathy and Emotional Support” challenging. However, “Body Language,” “Cultural Awareness,” and “Attentiveness to Family Dynamics” were perceived as relatively easy or not difficult by participants. Conclusion: Evaluation of EDCs using EDC-SET revealed the varying competency levels of EDCs and showed agreement on the evaluation between the assessors. Implementing the EDC‐SET could help standardise the mapping and measurement of the skill set of EDCs, thereby enhancing their performance and reducing corneal blindness in India.

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Policy framework for advancing eye banking and cornea transplantation

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Eye Donation: Awareness, Knowledge, Willingness, and Barriers among Paramedical and Allied Health Science Students at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India

Eye Donation: Awareness, Knowledge, Willingness, and Barriers among Paramedical and Allied Health Science Students at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India

Evolution of eye banking in India – A review

Eye Donation Counsellor Skill Evaluation Tool (EDC-SET): A step toward improved eye donation counseling

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