Social accountability in optometric education

Medical education needs to be socially responsible, socially responsive and accountable according to Global consensus for social accountability of medical schools document. Social responsibility is to be aware of the needs of the society. Social responsiveness is aligning the education, research and service arenas with the needs of the community. Social accountability is aiming for the better health of the society through partnerships with the Government initiatives, non-government organizations and community partnerships. Based on these expectations from the medical education, vision of optometric institutions should realign with these needs. Keeping up with this goal, Elite School of Optometry (ESO) defined its ‘Vision’ as: Be always a foremost and distinguished leader with social responsibility, responsiveness and accountability in optometric education, vision care service and vision science research in India. This article aims to project the model by which outreach initiatives of ESO are intertwined with academics and research environment to provide an integrated solution to the society’s needs and its march towards social accountability.