Minutes of the IPGS Meeting held during the GSI Conference at

Thiruvananthapuram

14th Sep 2018

            A Meeting of the Indian Pediatric Glaucoma Interest Group was held on 14th Sep 2018 during the Annual GSI Conference at Thiruvananthapuram.  It was attended by 28 members of the IPGI

The following points were discussed

1.Announcement of Registration of the Indian Pediatric Glaucoma Society

Prof. Viney Gupta announced the registration of the Indian Pediatric Glaucoma Society. He outlined the way forward in terms of deciding about memberships, meetings and consolidating research activities initiated

It was decided to name the group the Indian Childhood Glaucoma Study Group. The Studies envisaged were as follows:

  1. The Indian Childhood Glaucoma Incidence Study
  2. The Steroid Induced Childhood Glaucoma Study

2. Steroid induced Glaucoma Study

Dr Sirisha Senthil discussed at length the initial excel charts that had been sent out as a pilot in order to gather information on the prevalence of Steroid Induced Glaucoma in children, and the visual impairment it caused. She re-iterated that the primary objective was to collect countrywide data to be able to present this to the Governmental Agencies and policy makers to sensitize them to the problem of OTC availability of steroids.

The excel charts received from Aravind Eye Hospital Madurai, PGI Chandigarh and MJ Institute Ahmedabad were analyzed and the problems of non-uniform data entry were discussed. It was decided to include geographical area of origin in the Excel Chart

It was decided to circulate the proposed protocol and excel sheets again to all participants willing to join. This was to be accompanied by all regulatory documents required for a Multicentric Study. It was decided that centers willing to participate would fill 10  patients each and send it across for analysis and vetting before proceeding with the actual study. In the meantime the Documents required could be made ready.

3.The Indian Childhood Glaucoma Study

Prof. Sushmita informed all about the idea of the Study and the list of participating Centres desirous to join. All were informed about regulatory documents required and at it was important to enroll a child only after a definitive diagnosis fitting one of the CGRN criteria was made. It need not have been at presentation.

All agreed to keep 31st December as the deadline for inclusion into the study so that we could start  recruitment by 1st January 2019 upto 31st Dec 2019.

Members were informed about the Ethics Committees available for Independent Researchers not affiliated with any Institution. All were informed that it was required by law to have the Ethics Committee registered with the

Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. Director General Of Health Services,. Ministry Of Health And Family Welfare.

 

Once the participating centres had the documents ready and were ready for recruitment, it was also decided to register the study with the Clinical Trials.gov.

 

4.Dr Vijaya suggested that Study 3 could look at children posted for cataract surgery because  it could be that those who developed post-cataract surgery glaucoma had an underlying goniodysgenesis. All agreed that it was worthwhile developing a protocol for Study 3.

 

The meeting ended on a note of Thanks and agreement to move forward.

 

 

Viney Gupta                                       Sushmita Kaushik                               Sirisha Senthil