The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Foundation announced that the recipients of the 2026 ASCRS Foundation Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award are Aravind Haripriya, MD, and Rengaraj Venkatesh, MD.
This prestigious award, endowed by a generous gift from philanthropists David and Victoria Chang, honors individuals who demonstrate exemplary dedication to humanitarian efforts with a focus on addressing cataract blindness and disability. Each award includes a $100,000 donation to the charitable ophthalmic organization of their choice and formal recognition at the ASCRS Annual Meeting, this year in Washington, D.C., from April 10-13, the ASCRS Foundation said in a press release.
“Dr. Haripriya and Dr. Venkatesh are ophthalmologists well known to ASCRS, who have contributed significantly to the overall advancement of excellence in our field as cataract surgeons,” said Lisa Park, MD, chair of the Nominating Committee. She added that Dr. Haripriya is recognized for her surgical expertise and publications for the last 10 years summarizing the outcomes of millions of phaco and manual cataract extractions at Aravind, confirming the impact of intracameral moxifloxacin on endophthalmitis reduction.
“Dr. Venkatesh has shown it is possible to minimize surgical waste in the operating room and revolutionized thinking about carbon emissions and sustainable health care delivery, resulting in ASCRS’ EyeSustain initiative,” Dr. Park said. “However, their nomination for the Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award is to recognize their leadership in an organization, the Aravind Eye Care System, a network of hospitals in southern India whose practice model allows for more than 50% of cataract surgeries to be performed at no cost or significantly subsidized cost to patients,” she said. “They have each performed nearly 100,000 surgeries, many of these being charitable cases.”
Both Dr. Haripriya and Dr. Venkatesh have long, accomplished careers in ophthalmology and work within the Aravind Eye Care System, which was started by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy in 1976.
They also have a deep commitment to training and education, sharing Aravind’s best practices, the systems, software, and spreadsheets, and offering training programs to help other hospitals develop their teams to address local needs. Over the last 2 decades, they have been leading courses at the ASCRS Annual Meeting and various other conferences regularly, sharing new techniques and updates and also focusing on MSICS, the press release noted.
“It was really special for both of us. Because this is also Aravind's Golden Jubilee year, I think it means a lot for us to be recipients because we are representing the larger Aravind family, and this means so much to everyone here, especially because now we have a large team of doctors from Aravind visiting the ASCRS [Annual Meeting] every year. Considering all the previous awardees, we're truly honored,” Dr. Haripriya said.
Also commenting on being the recipient of the award, Dr. Venkatesh said: “We truly believe that this award is for the Aravind Eye Care System,” Dr. Venkatesh said. There are so many things to be done at Aravind, he noted, adding that the award will be utilized for the best possible evidence-based care, around sustainability, training, and teaching.