Having received my undergraduate and post graduate degree in Ophthalmology from the Christian Medical College, Vellore, I realized that my passion lay in Public Eye health. For Primary Eye Care (PEC) to be universal, it had to be linked with Primary Health Care. So, I pursued a Masters in Public Health in 2009 also from CMC, Vellore. I have been engaging in developing a model of integration of eye health with primary health care with our team in all the community health delivery areas of CMCH for eye care delivery by setting up a referral pathway from the grassroots to the centre of excellence, generating evidence required along the way. Also have had experience working with the Vellore Birth Cohort and Birth cohort of twins delivered at the CMC.
Having been working with Vision rehabilitation since 2001, inclusion has been my other passion where apart from being involved in setting up the Centre for Low vision rehabilitation in the institution am engaging in taking inclusion to the community as we have sensitised grass root level workers to identify and refer all those with perceived disability, a significant proportion of whom then are taken through to inclusion in various forms.
Publications
1. Paul P, Antonisamy B, John N, Braganza A, Kuriakose T, Isaac R, Abraham L, Amritanand A, Samuel P, Chelliah HY, Gowri M, Magdalene N, Cherry JP, Paul TV, Jebasingh F, Arulappan G, Thomas N, Vasan SK, Murthy GVS, Gilbert C. Prevalence and risk factors of pre-senile lens opacities in the 1969-73 Vellore Birth Cohort. Eye (Accepted for publication)
2. Paul P, Amritanand A, Jasper S, Doss P, Samuel P, Chelliah H, Antonisamy B, Mackey DA. Tracing ocular biometry and their heritability in twins in a hospital-based cohort in South India. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2025 Mar 1;73(3):352-357. doi: 10.4103/IJO.IJO_3301_23. Epub 2024 Sep 10. PMID: 39257097; PMCID: PMC11994190.
3. Amritanand A, Paul P, Jasper S, Kumar SV, Abraham V. Incorporating Primary Eye care into Primary Health care: Piloting a perceived visual disability questionnaire based model in Rural Southern India – an observational study. Indian J Ophthalmol 2018;66:957-62.
4. Paul P, Kuriakose T, John J, Raju R, George K, Amritanand A, Premdoss A, Muliyil J. Prevalence and visual outcomes of cataract surgery in rural South India, a cross sectional study. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2016 Oct;23(5):309-15 (Accepted for publication on Nov 5, 2015)
5. Thomas R, Paul P, Rao GN, Muliyil JP, Mathai A. Present status of eye care in India. Surv Ophthalmol 2005 Jan – Feb; 50(1): 85-101
