Dr.Ashish Sharma and his wife Dr.Rohini Sharma live in a lovely gated community ' Elysium Flushing Meadows'. The brilliant doctor is a native of Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh. He was born to Vimla ( homemaker ) and R.P.Sharma, a clerk who was with the PWD.
Dr.Ashish Sharma and his wife Dr.Rohini Sharma live in a lovely gated community ' Elysium Flushing Meadows'. The brilliant doctor is a native of Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh. He was born to Vimla ( homemaker ) and R.P.Sharma, a clerk who was with the PWD. Ashish did his schooling at the local Government School and came out with flying colours. The MBBS and MD were from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Madhya Pradesh. He had taken his medical entrance exams in Hindi. Ashish found the first year of medicine a bit challenging because English as a medium of instruction was new to him. The English language had been a barrier. Persistence has now made him a good international speaker in English.
" I did my Retina specialty training in the University of California and the University of Miami in the USA. The University of Miami is ranked No.1 in ophthalmology for the last 12 years. One has to clear some exams in order to pursue the study of medicine in the US. I served as a member of the faculty in the University of California for 2 years and also at the L.V.Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad for sometime. Now I am with the Lotus Eye Hospital in Coimbatore for the last 8 plus years.
My wife Dr.Rohini is a oral medicine radiologist and dentist. She is currently teaching at the TIPS Global Institute ( Assistant Professor - School of Entrepreneurship ). I specialize in Retina Care and perform surgeries connected with the same. We deal with a number of people with diabetes and also premature babies who need a lot of attention. My work and experience led me to create a small smart phone based device which captures Retina images anywhere in any given situation. The product is called MIIRETCAM ( Make In India Retina Camera ) and I was inspired by our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji.
The device is 3 years old and we created a prototype with the help of professors from Amrita in Coimbatore. This is my personal initiative. I took the prototype to a number of engineering colleges in order to explore the possibility of creating a commercial device. However it did not yield results. Finally one grandmother, father and son came to the hospital and I learnt that the son had cracked the engineering entrance exam. He said that his future was with mechanical engineering. The father Senthil owned an industry ( Ultrafine & Microtech Polymers ). I requested the father ( Senthil ) to help me make a commercial piece and he agreed. The two good people Shajan and Sinesh in Senthil's factory were really helpful. They helped me to get to the commercial level, " shared Dr.Ashish.
The next step was to see whether it could be made commercial. Dr.Ashish took a few images of the Retina and uploaded the same on an eye specialists page in facebook. We have remember that dilation is a pre condition for the study with the aid of this device. He had shared pictures which could only be captured with the help of a very expensive camera. Ashish was surprised to see the overwhelming response from doctors spread over 70 countries. This gave him a ' kick ' and he wanted to take it commercial but he did not have money. His neighbours Raj and Anand suggested that he could raise the Rs.700,000 required through crowd funding. Dr.Ashish offered the machine for Rs.7000 and the delivery was to be made after 6 months. He got 150 orders in 2 weeks and this became his seed capital. Now, he had the phone and the device but software was required. Help came in the form of a patient. The son of the patient had stated that India had a number of issues and one can succeed if he or she is ready to sort them out. The father was Raman and son Vishnu of I Breeze. They assured that they will make a simple app and the MIIRETCAM app was the first from the company. Vengopalan Kannapiran had worked on the software.
" Meanwhile I wrote to the personal secretary to the Prime Minister. The letter was forwarded by email at 5 PM and I got a response by 5: 30 PM! The following day I was advised to meet Dr.Jitendra Singh ( Minister of State ) in his office. I met him in just 2 days and the Minister gave me a full hour. He referred me to a number of National Institutions who offered me a lot of hope. Meanwhile we got the app ready but did not have money for the software. We did one more pre launch booking at Rs.12,000 per piece and offered to deliver in 3 months. This resulted in 70 orders and we were done. Now the job was to deliver the best product with the best packaging. Thanks to Kunal, it was done through ' Signatures '. The rest is history. Our innovation reached the World Ophthalmology Congress, American Academy of Ophthalmology and it has reached over 40 countries. John Hopkins Institute is also one of the places. Kaiser, a Corporate Chain in Southern California uses this device. It was accepted as the topmost medical innovation in the country ( 2016 ) and the All India ophthalmology Society called me ' International Hero of the Year '. I am really happy to share the story of one Dr.Bilong of Cameroon. He was the first one to get the product
through the crowd funding platform. Dr.Bilong screened over 1000 patients with MIIRETCAM and his work with this device is topmost. Thanks to the work of Dr.Bilong, the innovation was featured in the wrapper of a topmost US magazine. He received a grant for his good work. This device is picking up across the globe. My father in law Dr.H.M. Tripathi ( Director - Sahara Hospital, Lucknow ) was a wonderful driving force and a source of encouragement", smiled Dr.Ashish. The little son of Ashish and Rohini - Rudraksha is a musician by birth ! Musical knowledge is inbuilt in him. The child has taken after his maternal grandmother Renuka Tripathi.
" The Smart ROP ( Retinopathy of Prematurity ) is the need of the hour. This device costs just Rs.20000 and the bigger one in the hospitals costs about Rs.80 lakhs. While our product is portable the other one is not. Lots of premature babies are born all around the world and the images done with the help of this product will help in a big way. An article was recently published ( 21/6/2019 ) in a big American journal about this. Now my husband Dr.Ashish is working on one more app - DBFI ( Diabetic Blindness Free India ) and is also developing RIGS ( Retinal Imaging Glasses by Sharmas ). The IPR ( Intellectual Property Rights ) work and guidance for the patent was from Subramaniam and his work has been really qualitative. This device is going to be gifted to the Government Hospital , Coimbatore through the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Smartcity. Aparna Sunku ( Secretary ), Manish Vyas ( President )and Janak Kikani have taken the step in aid of this contribution Our website is http://www.miiretcam.com, " stated Dr.Rohini Sharma. She helps her husband Dr.Ashish with MIIRETCAM Inc. While Rohini is the Director, Ashish is the Innovator with MIIRETCAM Inc.
Breaking News : Dr.Ashish has designed a new treatment protocol for diabetic macular edema and it has been accepted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "Truly humbled to present to the world the new treatment protocol SNF - Ob for the management of Diabetic Macular Edema( DME ) with a potential to reduce the cost of treatment significantly. This will make it affordable for many, " added Ashish.
Coimbatore is a land of entrepreneurs. Both Dr.Rohini and Dr.Ashish Sharma are adding to the entrepreneurial lustre of the city through their venture MIIRETCAM Inc which is part of the prestigious Make In India initiative.