Director PGIMER Prof. Jagat Ram conferred with Honorary Fellow of All India Collegium of Ophthalmology (FAICO) Award.
It is another feather in the cap of Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIWER as he is conferred with the distinct honour of Honorary Fellow of All India Collegium of Ophthalmology (FAICO) Award by All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS).
The Governing Board of AIOS Collegium unanimously recommended Prof. Jagat Ram for being an outstanding stalwart of Indian ophthalmology and the honour was bestowed upon him during the Inauguration Ceremony of 79th Annual Conference held virtually today.
In addition Prof Vishali Gupta received P Siva Reddy International Award for Significant work in the field of Retina. Prof Mangat Dogra former HOD Ophthalmology received AIOS P Namperumalsamy Endowment Award, Prof Sushmita Kaushik FAICO Award in Glaucoma and Dr Madhuri Akella received best thesis award.
Coming from a humble background, Padma Shri Prof Jagat Ram, joined PGIMER in 1985 and became the Director in 2017. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the MCI since October 2018 and was awarded with the distinguished Padma Shri award in 2019.
Prof Jagat Ram received his MBBS degree from Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, in 1978 followed by MS in Ophthalmology from the PGI in June 1982. He was subsequently awarded the WHO Fellowship in the field of advanced phacoemulsification at Storm Eye Institute, USA, in 1993-1994. He was awarded another Fellowship in Paediatric Cataract Surgery in 1998 by the same institute.
Prof Jagat Ram was deputed by the Government of India as a Consultant Ophthalmologist with the Republic of Seychelles from 2003 to 2005, a period during which he eliminated backlog of cataract blindness in this island nation.
Prof Jagat Ram introduced the technique of phacoemulsification at the PGI in 1994 replacing the older technique of extracapsular cataract surgery. Year after year, he operated upon blind patients and restored vision in them and in the past 39 years, nearly 90,000 such patients have been benefited by his surgical skills. In addition, he regularly offered free services as an eye surgeon in over 150 relief and screening camps organised for neglected and extremely poor individuals.
He is a recipient of the “Best of the Best Winner” for a new surgical technique on management of double crystalline lens at the American Society Cataract and Refractive Society held at San Francisco, USA, in April 2013. At this televised award ceremony, the National Anthem of India was played. In a rare honour again on May 9, 2016, he received the “Best of the Best Award” at New Orleans, USA, at a conference of the American Society. Prof Jagat Ram also received one of the most prestigious awards, the Oscar of Paediatric Ophthalmology, at the World Congress of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus held at Barcelona in 2015.
