Transforming specialist eye care
30 January 2024
We’ve recently awarded two innovation grants to strengthen the delivery of specialist treatments ‘above and beyond’ what the NHS supports.
We’re proud to support innovations at Moorfields and UCL, which have helped propel this partnership to world-leading status.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a chronic disease that requires lifelong surveillance.
There is an increasing demand on consultant-led clinics with an ageing population and more treatment options.
10%
of people in the UK who go blind do so due to glaucoma.
500,000
people in the UK have glaucoma –that’s 2% of everyone over the age of 40.
The diagnostic clinics at Moorfields are designed to address this but are currently only running at 68% capacity.
One reason for this is that the reviewing clinician needs to examine the eye, which is particularly important in post-surgical monitoring of glaucoma patients.
Moorfields has piloted introducing smartphone photography to these clinics.
Technicians can be trained to take detailed photographs of the front of the eye, which, alongside existing investigations, allows clinicians to clearly see the health of the anterior segment and examine surgical sites asynchronously.
The pilot showed that including photographs changed management in a quarter of patients.
The results of this pilot supported a successful grant application to Moorfields Eye Charity to roll this out further and support a mobile-friendly interface in OpenEyes.
The project is led by Dr Peter Thomas, director of digital medicine, and Hari Jayaram, glaucoma consultant. Their team include Caroline Kilduff, Dhakshayini Muhundhakumar and Usha Halai at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
The process is also low-cost, adaptable, and scalable across eye care.
Hypotony
Mr Harry Petrushkin, a uveitis consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital, is working with colleagues within the hospital as well as across UCL to develop novel techniques to treat hypotony.
What is hypotony?
Learn more
Hypotony is a condition caused by an imbalance between the production of fluid within the eye and outflow. In some patients, this imbalance starts to cause the eye to shrink leading to disorganisation of the structures within the eye.
To date, there are no treatments to reverse hypotony.
Patients may have an operation to fill the eye with silicone oil, which stops the eye from shrinking further, but silicone oil has complications associated with long-term use.
The treatment strategy, which is minimally invasive and low-cost, involves injecting a commonly used gel-like fluid into the vitreous cavity to stretch the eye slowly.
Over 80%
of eyes presenting with hypotony have a visual acuity of 6/60 or worse.
Injections are administered in the retinal therapy unit, and most patients require between 6-8 to restore the eye back to its original size
Thus far, seven eyes have been treated, and all patients have had significant visual improvement.
Our innovation grants create opportunities to push boundaries.
Project Details
Innovation grant
Miss Dhakshayini Muhundhakumar & Dr Harry Petrushkin
Glaucoma, patient experience, staff welfare/support, service improvement, education/training, ocular inflammatory diseases, retinal/vitreo-retinal
£99,912
April 2022
GR001487 & GR001576
