Harnessing the power of people 

As with many things, it’s the people that are the most important ingredient in delivering excellent care and doing world-class eye research.

That’s why Dr Roxanne Crosby-Nwaobi, lead nurse for research at Moorfields and honorary associate professor at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, has been so dedicated to getting more patients involved.

The charity awarded Roxanne an innovation grant to fund her research into whether a smartphone app (called RetinaRisk) could improve the way diabetic retinopathy is managed by empowering patients to check their own eye health from home. Her research revealed that patients welcomed the app and the reassurance that individualised feedback could provide.

Roxanne went on to present her work at the Diabetes Professional Care conference, speaking on how researchers can better involve patients in their own self-management. She hopes that in future, RetinaRisk could be made available to all patients with diabetic retinopathy as part of their care at Moorfields.

Underserved communities, minor ethnic groups and people from socioeconomically deprived areas are traditionally poorly represented in research and clinical trials. In response to this, Roxanne has been leading a campaign to raise awareness amongst a wider diversity of patients, of opportunities to take part in research studies.

Roxanne also presented to healthcare professionals at Diabetes Professional Care on how they can improve research involvement in underserved communities. By speaking to both patients and researchers, she hopes to improve the representation of underserved communities in research, improving research outcomes and making them more relevant to a wider, more diverse population.

In enabling the sharing of knowledge, the charity was delighted to support Roxanne’s representation at the Royal College of Nursing Awards this year, where she was awarded Nurse Researcher of the Year for her work to widen participation and diversity in eye research. Far from being her only accolade, she has won multiple other high-profile awards this year and finished 2023 by being appointed as the interim programme director for the NIHR Senior Research Leaders.