Lowering the Cost of Eye Care?

"The world’s largest provider of eye care has found success by directly adapting the management practices of another big-box food brand, one that is not often associated with good health: McDonald’s.” That's from the start of a New York Times post about Dr. Venkataswamy (aka Dr. V), noted for performing eye care at considerably lower cost. “In 1976, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy — known as Dr. V — retired from performing eye surgery at the Government Medical College in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, a state in India’s south. He decided to devote his remaining years to eliminating needless blindness among India’s poor. Twelve million people are blind in India, the vast majority of them from cataracts, which tend to strike people in India before 60 — earlier than in the West. Blindness robs a poor person of his livelihood and with it, his sense of self-worth; it is often a fatal disease. A blind person, the Indian saying goes, is “a mouth with no hands.” Read more.

MD's Retirement Leads to Free Eye Care

"At 58 years old, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy decided he needed to develop a post-retirement plan to keep his mind engaged." So starts the New York Times post. "Dr. V as he is more commonly known, an ophthalmologist from a small rural village in South India, struggled with physical ailments throughout his life. He decided to take care of India’s poor and blind – for free." Read more.