About Us
Introduction
LVPEI’s mission is to provide equitable and quality eye care to all sections of society.
Established in 1987, with the vision, “to create excellent and equitable eye care systems that reach all those in need,” the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), a comprehensive eye health institute, is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness.
The LVPEI’s five-tier “Eye Health Pyramid” model, covering all areas of the community right from the villages to the city, provides high quality and comprehensive preventive, curative, and rehabilitative eye care to all. The LVPEI Eye Care Network has over 300 centres across the Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Karnataka. It has till date served over 36.89 million (3 crores 68 lakh people), with more than 50% entirely free of cost, irrespective of the complexity of care needed.
The Institute operates through its ten functional arms – Clinical Services, Education, Research, Vision Rehabilitation, Rural and Community Eye Health, Eye Banking, Advocacy and Policy Planning, Capacity Building, Innovation, and Product Development.
LVPEI is managed by two not-for-profit entities – Hyderabad Eye Institute (HEI) and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF). In addition, L V Prasad Eye Innovations, is a section 8 company that manages our product innovations.
The Founding
In 1982, Mrs. Pratibha Rao and Dr Gullapalli Nageswara Rao decided that their true calling was to return home to India and establish a high quality eye care academic centre, combining excellence with equity. This was not an easy decision; they were leaving behind a thriving career in the United States of America.
In 1984, they set up the Indo-American Eye Care Society in Rochester, New York to help raise funding to set up an eye institute in India. The not-profit charitable trust, the Hyderabad Eye Institute, was registered. The first major donor was Mrs Pratibha Rao, who made a significant contribution to this project. This munificence and her contributions to numerous facets of the institute, led to some components being named after her in the later years.
The Naming
Much before the foundation stone was laid, the renowned Indian film-maker Sri Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad Rao, popularly known as L V Prasad, decided to donate a part of the profits of his blockbuster film “Ek Duje Ke Liye” to a worthy cause. He decided to donate rupees one crore and five acres of land towards the establishment of the state-of-the-art Eye Institute envisioned by Dr Gullapalli Nageshwar Rao. In recognition of this gesture, the Board of the Hyderabad Eye Institute, (the trust established to make the eye institute a reality) decided to name the Institute after him.
Over the years, his family has continued to support the institute’s work. His son, Mr Ramesh Prasad, Managing Director of Prasad Film Laboratories, is a founder trustee of LVPEI and is the longest serving member of the Hyderabad Eye Institute’s governing board, along with Dr Rao.
LVPEI’s founder’s vision
“Reconciling excellence with equity” was the underlying thought … There was no big idea, just a small dream – to build an academic centre of the highest standards inspired by the American institutions I have come to admire, and to not deny care … by providing at least half of our services free of cost…”