From Hyderabad to Madurai, then to Chennai and finally to New Delhi, University of Wisconsin Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS) Chair Terri Young, MD, MBA recently spent two weeks traveling throughout India to strengthen partnerships and advance a shared global mission: eye research to advance eye health for all.
From July 21 through August 7, 2026, Dr. Young visited four major cities in India, delivering featured scientific lectures, touring clinics and research facilities, and meeting with institutional leaders to explore opportunities for new and continued collaborations in research, education, and patient care.
Her journey began in Hyderabad at the LV Prasad Eye Institute, where she attended the annual Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)-India meeting. As the current president of ARVO, Dr. Young delivered specific greetings and latest initiatives of the organization, and then presented her laboratory’s multiple decades long childhood glaucoma genomics research discoveries as the Dr. Bireswar Chakrabarti Oration Keynote Speaker.
From Hyderabad, Dr. Young traveled to Madurai, India to visit the Aravind Eye Health System. This visit was poignant for her as a homecoming of sorts, as she first visited and worked at Aravind Eye Hospital as a third-year ophthalmology resident in training over 30 years ago. She noted that multiple impressive changes have occurred for this institution. Aravind was initiated by a family of ophthalmologists sub-specializing in all fields, and was the first eye hospital to initiate a “Robinhood” ecosystem of eyecare to use the margins created in their “paying” hospital to underwrite costs in their “free” hospital. Aravind now has a substantially expanded footprint and reach to multiple surrounding states in a hub-and-spoke fashion, integrated with an extensive tele-ophthalmology operation to provide much-needed eye care to Indian citizens in even more remote areas outside of the cities. Furthermore, its commercial Aura Labs produces intraocular lenses, glaucoma devices, ophthalmic imaging equipment, diagnostic instruments and ocular pharmaceuticals offered at a fraction of the cost available anywhere else globally.
From Madurai, Dr. Young traveled to Chennai, India to visit the Sankara Nethralaya- a premier, non-profit charitable eye hospital and ophthalmic research institution headquartered in Chennai, India, operating as a unit of the Medical Research Foundation.
Her final stop was New Delhi, India. She enjoyed an extended stay visiting Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH), where she participated in two particularly meaningful SCEH milestones. She was honored to inaugurate SCEH’s new Centre for Unknown and Rare Eye Disorders (CURED), a facility dedicated to improving the diagnosis, care, and long-term management of patients living with rare eye diseases. CURED represents the kind of progress made possible through sustained international collaboration: bringing together expertise, resources, and a shared commitment to improving the lives of patients and their families with eye disease. She was also tasked to inaugurate the Shroff Research Academy Foundation Program- a structured research training and mentorship initiative designed to foster a culture of scientific excellence, innovation, and evidence-based clinical practice among healthcare professionals at SCEH and its partners. Dr. Young’s participation in both inaugurations underscores the longstanding partnership between DOVS and SCEH, which has been in place for 12 years.
Dr. Young also delivered talks to faculty and students at a second New Delhi institution- the All-India Institute of Medical Science- a group of autonomous government public medical universities of higher education under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. She met with faculty and toured the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences.
All visits were to programs in India that provide world-class eye care services while subsidizing a large portion of care for underprivileged populations (offering free treatments and surgeries to roughly 35%–50% of needy patients), as well as support strong ophthalmologic and treatment -dissemination research programs.
Dr. Young reflects, “There is a great deal for us to learn from our colleagues in India- especially with respect to reducing barriers to patient care by implementing multi-pronged access initiatives, sustainability, efficient care model systems, as examples. Deep dives into research and discovery initiatives in both rare and common diseases regionally helps and impacts patients globally. It is my hope and desire to enable even greater partnerships and collaborations both within my department, and through ARVO. ARVO is where most if not all my relationships with members in far-off places began. I am deeply grateful for the old and new friendships.”