Uday Chronicles

OCTOBER.2021.ISSUE 12

UDAY KUMAR ADDEPALLI

The road to success is always under construction

-Arnold Palmer

OCTOBER. 2021, ISSUE 12

CHRONICLES OF ALO

I was very clear from early on that I did not want to pursue engineering, which most of my
friends aimed to pursue. I always wanted to work with a leader as I knew my dreams were big.
I just didn’t know what I wanted to pursue and that is when life gave me a chance to work
with a leader like Dr G N Rao. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dr Rao, he is the then
director of L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), and a distinguished ophthalmologist inducted
into the prestigious Ophthalmology Hall of Fame instituted by the American Society of
Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), 2017. I happened to hear a lot about his
administration and leadership skills through my brother. I wasn’t aware of optometry,
initially. I was passionate about acting as it was something that had my heart. I still catch
myself doing reels on Megastar Chiranjeevi’s famous movies, even now. So, I began looking
for opportunities to get into film making and acting. One day, I happened to watch an
interview of Dr Rao, on Doordarshan (TV Channel) where he spoke about optometry, its
value, and its prospects after which I felt myself getting inclined towards pursuing optometry.
I wanted to serve the community in some way, and if I was able to do that by helping people
see better, I wanted to give it a shot. This also resonated with my parents’ dreams for me.

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OCTOBER. 2021, ISSUE 12 2

The course started off well, however, I did not
perform well during my first year. I vividly
remember my first interaction with Dr G
Chandrasekhar when he came to Bausch and
Lomb School of Optometry (BLSO) to announce
our results. As my performance was not up to the
mark, he advised me to discontinue the course if I
weren’t interested. All through my course my
grades were average but my clinical skills were
sound, thanks to Mr Vallam S Rao, my lecturer,
mentor, and guide throughout my diploma. I had
some of the best days in BLSO and made best
friends for life.

I faced a few challenges during my internship
days. I remember the first time I failed at
refraction. But thanks to Dr Vinod Maseedupally
(Lecturer at School of Optometry and vision
science, UNSW, Sydney), our then in-charge for
boosting my confidence – such small challenges
strengthened and contributed to my overall
learning. After this, I joined LVPEI. I always
wanted to do something big and be an
extraordinary optometrist. However, I had no one
to guide me to reach the pinnacle or show me the
way to live my dream. Gradually I realised that
opportunities don’t come by chance, they needed
to be created. I gave myself 5-years to prove my
potential in various areas of optometry (research,
academics and retail). I moved to Dubai in 2007
and learnt some of the best practices in retail and
proved my potential. After a year, my interest in
research grew stronger, so I moved back to India.
I joined LVPEI and dedicated myself to research &
patient care. I have published over 40- peer-
reviewed articles till date. Thanks to my authors/
co-authors.

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OCTOBER. 2021, ISSUE 12

Life as a Public Health Optometrist

After proving my potential in clinics, I started working towards the vision of LVPEI’s community
outreach activities and decided that I should work on delivering quality eye care services to the
rural communities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Whilst most of my colleagues were
focussed on science and research, I was very passionate about serving the rural population and
devoting my time towards their well-being. I started my work in the field of public health with an
aim to grow and expand the reach of health centres in rural communities by monitoring a cluster
of 10 vision centres linked to one of the secondary centres (village vision complex) of LVPEI in
2008. My contributions and experiences paved a way for me to become the head of training,
quality and technical standards of a network of over 150 vision centres across 4 states in India.
In addition to this, I was also a part of the team that established the Himalayan Vision Project in
Leh-Ladhakh in Jammu & Kashmir, thanks to Dr Virendra Sangwan.

While working at LVPEI, I enrolled myself as an off-campus Ph.D. student at the University of
New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. My research focused on validating a model to detect early
glaucoma in the rural population in the absence of ophthalmologists but replaced by specially
trained optometrists and mid-level ophthalmic personnel. I had my share of struggles during my
Ph.D. and the challenges were intense as I was an off-campus student, however, as every Ph.D.
student, I had the strength to overcome them and proved to be successful. I’m grateful to my
supervisors for providing scientific guidance and encouragement during my candidature. The
proposed model from my Ph.D. was well received with 3 major publications relevant to public
health internationally. Thanks to Prof Eric Papas (Professor Emeritus at UNSW), Dr G
Chandrashekhar (Vice Chair, LVPEI, Hyd), and Dr Rohit Khana (Netwrok director, Public health,
consultant ophthal, LVPEI, Hyd).

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OCTOBER.2021.ISSUE 12

Career Abroad

Surrounded by several successful optometrists, I was also motivated to travel internationally
and explore the scope of optometry practice and continue to provide my services to those
who needed them. It didn’t seem easy as I also had the responsibility of taking care of my 3-
year-old son, Kriss, which paused my career in India. Later, I relocated to New Zealand and
took this as a new challenge and responded positively to the situation. Upon completing my
Ph.D., with the vision of working in community optometry, I volunteered at OneSight
foundation in establishing vision centres and trained the vision technicians there so that
quality eye care services could reach to every doorstep in the rural communities of
Bangladesh. As a part of this, I led the project of implementing vision centres and technical
training of the vision technicians, while identifying potential optometry graduates, who were
encouraged to return to LVPEI for further training in optometry. As part of this project, I
successfully established 7 vision centres and each vision centre caters services to a million
people. This work of mine received great appreciation from the Asia Pacific director of
OneSight programmes and we provided clinical training and support to regional staff across
Bangladesh and ensured quality eye care services and self-sustainability of vision centres.

This work was recognised by the Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI), Australia and I was
offered a role as a Project Development Officer for their project in developing a proof of
concept on establishing a clinical optometry internship hub for the optometry graduates in
one of the top universities of East Africa, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Under
my supervision, the first batch of optometry graduates received specialised training, sound
knowledge, and expertise in clinical skills to be able to practice full scope of comprehensive
optometry. This has enabled them to practice independently, in turn helping the country by
reducing the burden of avoidable blindness.

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OCTOBER. 2021, ISSUE 12

This optometry internship hub aimed to provide internship opportunities for the optometry
students graduating from other parts of the continent and then this concept could be
implemented across the world. During this period, I lead a new optometry clinic named
Academic Vision Centre (AVC) which in no time caught the attention of many locals because of
the quality eye care I was providing and I was also invited as a guest on a famous news channel
(NTV Uganda) to share my knowledge on glaucoma care. I received an award of appreciation for
the outstanding services provided for the development of optometry from the government of
Uganda through Makerere University.

In addition, I was passionate about raising funds and developing collaborations within and
outside of BHVI. I worked as a senior optometry consultant for an international non-profit
organization, Light for the World (LFW) and worked on the Child Eye Health Project in East
Africa. On the research front, I brought collaborations from Global Vision 2020 for validating a
self-refraction device called USee. I also collaborated with the Johns Hopkins International
Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU), USA to understand vision related quality of life in road traffic
accident victims.

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OCTOBER. 2021, ISSUE 12

Overall, I worked on a broad spectrum; from being a clinician and a researcher to an ambitious
team leader guiding over 150 vision centres for delivering high quality eye care to various
underserved geographic locations of the world. I have an excellent track record in my field
with a comparable work experience of highest standards in technical and operational training,
teaching, clinical care, dispensing, supply chain, social franchise and business strategies,
quality control, donor relations, collaborations, and financial reporting to donor agencies.
Throughout my career, I always aimed to be an optometrist with a rich combination of 3 Hs,
“Heart”, “Head” and “Hands” – a beautiful philosophy I learnt from Dr Rao. All my years of
hard work, achievements, and international collaborations in this profession bestowed on me
the prestigious Australia's Distinguished Global Talent - Health Industries (2021) award. After
2 years of dedication and hard work, I’m now a registered optometrist in Australia and New
Zealand (ANZ). I moved to regional South Australia where I continue to provide primary eye
care services, and currently pursuing ocular therapeutics from ACO (Australian College of
Optometry). I further intend to undertake national relief or flying optometrist projects (in
ANZ to serve the remote communities) to support eye care services. I don’t know what the
future holds in store for me, but I aim for one of these two positions.

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OCTOBER.2021, ISSUE 12

Be Adventurous and Live Life With No Excuses

Many of you know me as an adventurer as I always love to explore and take up daring, exciting
and extraordinary adventures. This is the best way to escape the busy schedule and yes, I don’t
make excuses. I find time to involve in activities that are challenging. I took part in several
adventures including sky diving, recreational pilot training (on-going), pistol shooting (on-going),
Royal Enfield – motorcycle riding and touring a wildlife safari in Africa. During the COVID 19
lockdown, I polished my acting skills on Tiktok. I have visited several countries, made many good
friends, learnt and indulged in their culture. I still have several things left on my bucket list and
cannot wait for the world to get back to normal to start travelling again.

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OCTOBER.2021, ISSUE 12

Through this, I only want to tell you to keep looking at the future where you aspire to be and
what you aspire to do, work only towards that and keep moving consistently till you reach your
goal. Success does not happen overnight or by chance, it comes slowly with change. I would like
to tell each one of you that anything is possible. If I can do it, so can you. Do what your heart and
mind says, and listen to no one else. Work towards your passion and you will truly thrive.

I thank ALO for this opportunity to share my story. I also take this opportunity to thank all my
professional colleagues of the past and present with whom I share my experiences in creating
better eye care services to the community. I’m also grateful to the support I received from LVPEI
and my family, without which I wouldn’t be what I am today.

Do you know a friend or a peer whose story is worth sharing? Please recommend them to us at
[email protected] so that we can reach out to them.

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