I think many people here will know of Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy, who passed away a few weeks ago and whose efforts were popularised in the best seller, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.
http://www.aravind.org/chief_ceremony.htm
This incredible man retired at the age of 58 and started an 11 bed eyecare clinic in his home, to provide free cataract surgery to India's poor. In the thirty years since, this has grown to include 5 hospitals, a number of medical schools and the world's largest exporter of intraocular lenses (which he reduced from $400 a pair to less than $10 a pair).
Using McDonald's as a business model, Venkataswamy lined people up on beds in a large theatre and had doctors and assistants specialize in areas of the cataract surgery process. His doctors performed more than twice as many surgeries as UK doctors yet out-performed them in success rate, post-operative infection rate and every comparable measure of performance published by the UK national health service.
As a result, Aravind doctors see 1.7 million patients a year and operate on more than 250,000 of them.
They achieved this incredible performance despite the fact that two-thirds of their patients were unable to pay anything toward consultation and three-fourths could not pay for the surgery. Moreover, fees for those who could pay were lower than the UK.
This is a case study that US medical schools need desperately to consider.
Well done, Dr Venkataswamy, rest in peace!
http://www.aravind.org/chief_ceremony.htm
This incredible man retired at the age of 58 and started an 11 bed eyecare clinic in his home, to provide free cataract surgery to India's poor. In the thirty years since, this has grown to include 5 hospitals, a number of medical schools and the world's largest exporter of intraocular lenses (which he reduced from $400 a pair to less than $10 a pair).
Using McDonald's as a business model, Venkataswamy lined people up on beds in a large theatre and had doctors and assistants specialize in areas of the cataract surgery process. His doctors performed more than twice as many surgeries as UK doctors yet out-performed them in success rate, post-operative infection rate and every comparable measure of performance published by the UK national health service.
As a result, Aravind doctors see 1.7 million patients a year and operate on more than 250,000 of them.
They achieved this incredible performance despite the fact that two-thirds of their patients were unable to pay anything toward consultation and three-fourths could not pay for the surgery. Moreover, fees for those who could pay were lower than the UK.
This is a case study that US medical schools need desperately to consider.
Well done, Dr Venkataswamy, rest in peace!