Research ushers in a new era for the eye care system in South India
Kamalini is the author of a highly significant body of research in healthcare innovation. Her work on shared medical appointments over the last decade has generated a number of critically-acclaimed papers and case studies, and articles for healthcare industry outlets such as The Lancet, as well as expert pieces for global platforms including Harvard Business Review and The Financial Times.
In 2013, Kamalini brought her research to the Aravind Eye Care System in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Aravind is the largest eye care hospital in the world, treating almost two thirds as many patients as the UK’s NHS in its totality for one hundredth of the cost. From its inception, the hospital had prioritised community outreach, however efforts to expand reach—primarily through eye camps in remote rural locations—had been historically hampered by limited access and a lack of follow-through care and patient support. This research was part-sponsored by the Wheeler Institute.
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Research methodology
Introducting shared medical appointments to over 1000 patients requiring non-urgent care
During her 2013 trip to the facility, Kamalini introduced the concept of shared appointments in non-urgent care for patients and in 2016, a large-scale, long-term trial was established offering SMAs to groups of Aravind patients. Initially, pilots were rolled to groups of five at weekends, but more recently SMAs have been offered to patients during the week.
To date, well in excess of 1000 patients have passed through the programme, and a slew of benefits have been reported and recorded by Kamalini together with her colleagues Ryan Buell of Harvard Business School, and LBS PhD student, Nazli Sonmez.
Research findings
Improved productivity, quality of service and patient engagement
Among the gains that Aravind are seeing in their experiments with SMAs are:
- Gains in efficiency and quality of service: at a time of increasing automation and use of technology, the addition of “more humans” is driving productivity and empowering the sharing of both standardised and customised information between practitioners and patients.
- Greater patient engagement: patients with glaucoma who attend the group appointments ask more questions during their appointments and are more likely to comply with the prescribed medication regime and follow up appointments than patients who attend one to one appointments.
