2025 Aravind Eye Care System – Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO)
Host Organization: Aravind Eye Care System – Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO)
Website: www.aravind.org; www.laico.org
Organization Profile: GOVEL TRUST is the legal entity which runs Aravind Eye Hospitals and Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO). Aravind Eye Hospital was founded in 1976 by Dr. G. Venkataswamy with a mission to eliminate needless blindness by providing compassionate and quality eye care affordable to all. Today it has grown into Aravind Eye Care System (AECS), comprising of Comprehensive eye care service delivery by Aravind Eye Hospitals, through 138 facilities (7 Tertiary Eye Care Centres, 7 Secondary Eye Care Centres, 7 Outpatient Eye Care Centres and 117 Primary Eye Care Centres); catering to the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the bordering districts of Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, serving a total population of 100 million. About 50% of all the surgeries provided are either free or at steeply subsidized costs. Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO) is the training and consulting arm of Aravind Eye Hospital run by GOVEL trust (the registered legal entity). LAICO was established in 1992 with an internal mandate to support eye care programmes globally through consultancy and capacity building, management training and research.
LAICO manages the coordination of volunteers, interns, and project students, both locally and internationally. A dedicated staff member oversees receiving applications, communicating with applicants, and making necessary arrangements - logistics such as accommodation, project assignments,
City: Madurai, India
Internship format: In-person
Internship Department: Training and Research
Department Profile: Driven by Aravind’s mission to eliminate needless blindness LAICO had set up a range of training activities that help eye care institutions to plan, develop and strengthen their care delivery programs with greater vigour and reach. The education and training program at Aravind and LAICO are intended for all levels of ophthalmic teaching and training of head of the hospitals, ophthalmologists, paramedical ophthalmic assistants, outreach workers, healthcare managers and researchers. So far we have trained 3, 562 management trainees from 83 countries.
One of LAICO’s key goals is to design and implement research projects in the areas of health services and epidemiology leading to scientifically sound publications. Research division at LAICO aims at building the research capacity by facilitating training and consultations on research design and research methodology.
Project description: To be determined in consultation with intern. We have various projects that interns can choose to focus on:
- Study of seasonal variation in cataract surgery volumes in Indian subcontinent
- Using telemedicine for subspecialty eye care
- Developing a prototype for producing engaging and informative health education content (videos).
- Study and assess problems faced by partner organisations and document workable solutions with evidence.
- Improving patient tracking in Operating Room.
- Developing a resource document
- Developing an APP/ Dashboard
- Developing Training Module
- Parameter Automation
- Developing Patient tracking system in pre-operative clinic (Creating EMR stations in A-scan / insurance / physician / investigations / Lab)
- Developing Online patient complaints management system
- Automating weekly performance report through power BI
- Analysis of current redundancy in reporting
- Cat QA business analytics
- Exploring online market for Aravind Optical
- Study of seasonal variation in cataract surgery outcomes in India
- Update the Travel software
Number of Opening(s): 1 or 2
Work Hours and Internship Start/End Dates: (Monday to Friday, June 16 – August 8, 2025): Full time/Six days a week from 9 AM to 6 PM
Work attire: Formal
Local Language: Tamil
Local Language level needed: Not required. English is fine as most of the staff speaks English fluently.
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