Aditya Goyal

Aditya Goyal

Binocular vision expert optometrist, Vision Aid, Chennai
Aditya Goyal graduated from Elite school of optometry in 1989. He completed M.S. In clinical optometry from Pennsylvania college of optometry, Salus University and has been practicing the Science and art of optometry since 1989. He is also a fellow of COVD and is pursuing PhD and fellowship of NORA at present.

Along with the clinical practice, he followed his interest in academics and was instrumental in establishing colleges of optometry in Chennai, Bangalore and Ludhiana along with Sankara eye care group of hospitals. These colleges are running optometry programs at bachelors and masters levels.

Presently, he is the principal of Sankara college of optometry, Bangalore and is also the head and mentor Optometry in the Sankara eye care group. Aditya Goyal is also an adjunct faculty at Pennsylvania college of optometry, Salus University, USA. Being interested in optometric education, he is on the board of the association of schools and colleges of optometry, India and serves as President on the board of ASCO, India.

Aditya was a member of the team which wrote the common minimum optometry curriculum (CMOC) and Indian entry level optometry competencies (IELOCS). He is one of the authors of the curriculum followed for bachelors and masters program in Optometry in India . He is also a member of the task force created by the Government of India to work on standardising the curriculum and practice of optometry in India. This aims at legislating the profession and creating a board to govern the practice of optometry in India.

Aditya lectures widely on the topics related to vision therapy, neuro vision, visual perception, behavioural and developmental optometry, paediatric optometry and low vision rehabilitation. He has a number of presentations both in India and abroad to his credit and is on the editorial review boards of two prestigious international journals – OVP and JOEHR. Aditya Goyal is the member of academic council of CT university, Ludhiana and represents India on the board of Asia Optometry Congress.

Rajesh Wadhwa

Rajesh Wadhwa

General optometrist and a lawyer, Wadhwa Optikos, New Delhi
Optom. Rajesh Wadhwa is an optometrist qualified from AIIMS in 1983 and has been practicing at Wadhwa Optikos, New Delhi for last over 4 decades. He is an M.Optom, a triple graduate and has wide range of qualifications. He has the credit of having introduced the prefix “Optom.” for optometrists.
  • As a student, he was awarded “Best student Award-1982” by AIIMS, New Delhi.
  • As an optometrist, he was honored with “Best optometrist of the year-1997 and “2019”
  • As an educator, he was awarded “Life time achievement award” and Fellowship by International Association of Contact Lens Educators (Australia)
  • As well wisher of optometry, American Academy of optometry has conferred on him for 2015 “International Award for Outstanding Contribution to optometry”.
  • He has been honored by OSA of AIIMS, New Delhi as “Living Legend”.
  • He holds Masters in Optometry. He is a part time educator and routinely lectures at universities in India and in Asia Pacific region. He has organised several conferences, chaired scientific sessions and has several scientific papers to his credit.

Among other qualifications, he also holds a B.Sc. in Zoology, PG diploma in management and certificate in community eye health. His ongoing quest for knowledge continues and he is also a qualified advocate and has specialisation in medical law and bioethics. Among other activities, his work in the capacity of founder president of “Indian Optometry Federation” culminated into creation of NCAHP Act-2021. For upliftment of optometry, he is moderating various optometry groups in cyber space.

Shrikant Bharadwaj

Shrikant Bharadwaj

Research lab director L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad
Designation: Scientist & Network Associate Director – Brien Holden Institute of Optometry and Vision Sciences Email: bharadwaj@lvpei.orgLaboratory: Visual Optics Laboratory Location: Kallam Anji Reddy Campus, Hyderabad

Shrikant Bharadwaj completed his undergraduate degree in Optometry from the Elite School of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai and a PhD in Vision Science from the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry, USA. After completing his post-doctoral training in Vision Science at the Indiana University School of Optometry, USA, Dr Bharadwaj returned to the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad as a DBT Ramalingaswami Fellow in 2009. Shrikant then established the Visual Optics research laboratory at LVPEI with the overall agenda of understanding how the optics of the eye influences spatial vision and depth vision. Dr Bharadwaj uses a combination of experimental, behavioral and computational techniques to address this research agenda. His laboratory actively publishes research work in international peer-reviewed vision science journals and the research work is generously supported by extramural grants from the Department of Science and Technology; Department of Bio-Technology; and from the optical industry (Abbott Medical Optics, Groningen, The Netherlands). Dr Bharadwaj also serves on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports and Optometry and Vision Science.

In addition to his research work, Dr Bharadwaj serves as the Director of the Brien Holden Institute of Optometry and Vision Sciences at LVPEI. He is actively involved in teaching at the institute’s Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry.

Dr. Jameel Rizwana

Dr. Jameel Rizwana

Binocular vision expert optometrist, Rivoli vision academy, UAE
Dr. Jameel Rizwana Hussaindeen (alias Rizwana) currently heads the Rivoli vision Academy at the Rivoli Vision, UAE, to lead the strategic planning and functioning of the Academy. Dr. Jameel Rizwana Hussaindeen is serving as the president for the Optometric association of Tamil Nanbargal (OATN), the legal association for Optometry in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. Through this role, she has been working towards the advocacy for Optometry to be established as an independent eye-care profession in the state and in the country.

Dr. Hussaindeen has been recently conferred as one of the 2022 World’s top 100 doctors for notable contributions to the healthcare professions, and is part of the 300 interdisciplinary community of doctors belonging to Dentistry, Pharmacy, Optometry and General medicine, selected from over 100 countries.

Dr. Hussaindeen is the first clinical Diplomate from India, in the section of Binocular vision, perception and paediatric Optometry of the American academy of Optometry (AAO) and is the inaugural and current president for the AAO-India chapter. She is also serving as a consultant for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).

Dr. Hussaindeen is serving as an adjunct faculty at the Sankara Nethralaya Academy, and a visiting consultant at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai where she was formerly heading the Binocular vision and Vision therapy clinic.

Dr. Hussaindeen’s expertise spans across clinical specialties of binocular vision, paediatric optometry, learning-related vision problems, cerebral visual impairment, amblyopia, and neurooptometry. She serves as a committee member and trainer for the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram’s (RBSK) -Government of India’s initiative in the preparation of a manual for the vision assessment and rehabilitation of cerebral visual impairment (CVI). Dr. Hussaindeen has been involved in the school eye health initiatives for over a decade now. She has earlier served as a mentor to the World council of Optometry’s (WCO) Advocacy for eye health program, and is currently a faculty member for the “Looking Towards the Future: Optometry Program in Advocacy and Leadership (OPAL)” run by the WCO, and is also a member of the education committee. Her doctoral research pertains to understanding binocular vision anomalies among school children. She has authored the book titled “Keep it single and simple – Binocular vision testing and treatment made easy” along with her mentor Prof. Mitchell Scheiman.

Dr. Hussaindeen has many peer-reviewed publications in international journals and also has authored chapters in books. She serves as a reviewer for national and international peer reviewed journals including Optometry and Vision Science, PloS One, BMJ-BJO, Journal of Optometry, Indian journal of Ophthalmology, and Nature-scientific reports. She also serves as a PhD co-supervisor at the Deakin University, Australia, and at the Chitkara University, Chandigarh.

Optom. Prasad Sawant

Optom. Prasad Sawant

Clinical Optometrist and Specialty Contact Lens Practitioner
Optom. Prasad K. Sawant has completed his Bachelors & Masters degree from Bharati Vidyapeeth School of Optometry, Pune in year 2001 & 2005 respectively. Later he has completed his Clinical Fellowship from L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad in 2002. He has also completed his Fellowship in Scleral Lenses at Boston Foundation for Sight, MA, USA in 2008. He is accredited Fellow of International Association of Contact lens Educators, Australia since 2011. He is awarded with British as well with American Academy of Fellowships in year 2014 & 2015 respectively.

Since 2003, he is successfully running his own private Optometry practice at Dombivli-Mumbai with the name “Sawant Optometry Clinic”. Along with comprehensive clinical practice, he is also practicing low vision, binocular vision and his specialty is, working with all types of Specialty Contact Lenses including Boston Scleral Lenses in the management of corneal ectatic conditions and ocular surface disorders.

He is also head of the contact lens department at The Eye Super-Specialties, Ghatkopar-Mumbai (2009) practicing all types of specialty contact lenses including Scleral Lenses. These both clinics are one of the official PROSE provider partner associates in collaboration with L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad & Boston Foundation for Sight, MA, USA.

He is a guest faculty and external examiner in various Optometry Schools across the nation for Clinical Optometry subject, practice managements & primarily for specialty Contact lenses. He was KOL for ALCON and TVCI faculty for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care India since 2012 – 2020. He has also worked with Bausch & Lomb as a clinician for their FOS studies for their new contact lens products. He has delivered several talks in various national Optometry conferences, CME’s & training programs. He has also presented several posters and/or oral presentations at British Contact Lens Association and American Academy of Optometry conferences as a primary or secondary author. As a co-author his publication in international peer reviewed journal on – Proactive Contact Lens Prescribing: Which approach is more effective? is well appreciated.

Other than Optometry his biggest hobby is, to play Cricket as he plays from couple of Cricket clubs from his district. As a Rotarian, he also represents the IFCR (International Fellowship of Cricket Rotarians) at national and international level of Cricket tournaments.

Optom. Lakshmi Shinde

Optom. Lakshmi Shinde

Clinical Optometrist CEO of Optometry council of India
Lakshmi Shinde graduated from Elite School of Optometry, Chennai, India in 1991. Following graduation has worked at the Contact Lens Department of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. She completed her Masters in Optometry (through research) from University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia). Following her completion of Masters, she has been associated with International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE) and is currently working as “Executive Manager of Global Education”.  She has presented at National and International meetings and also has published peer reviewed journals. She is also the receiver of the prestigious American Academy award for her contribution to international optometry. She also received the “optometrist of the year” award from Sankara Nethralaya in 2016.