Anglia Ruskin University

Professor Rupert Bourne, Professor Roger Buckley, Dr Zahra Jessa, Laura Sanchez, Dr Holly Price, Nick Wride, Karen French, Dr Gokulan Ratnarajan, Wendy Newsom, Lydia Chang, Paula Turnbull, Dr Ebi Osuobeni, Professor Shahina Pardhan.

Current activities:

• The natural history of primary angle closure and the effect of iridotomy.
• The 24 hour behaviour of intraocular pressure.
• Study of global importance on the progression and management of glaucoma
• Development of an Electronic Patient Record for hospital and community use for glaucoma and uveitis services with decision support software.
• Evidence-based studies on the benefits of community care of glaucoma by specially qualified optometrists.
• Interactive training programme for ophthalmologists to recognise visual field progression in glaucoma patients.
• Extension of a glaucoma scheme, currently local to Huntingdonshire - for shared care of low-risk hospital glaucoma referrals and ocular hypertensive patients - to the wider East of Anglia region.
• To develop new tests for early detection of glaucoma field defects.

Outcomes:
Research into glaucoma has centred around the use of imaging and psychophysical technologies to detect and monitor patients. We have highlighted how imaging technologies can assist with the detection and progression of glaucoma in a clinical setting. This is of enormous importance in the care of patients with glaucoma, one of leading cause of irreversible blindness. Our evidence-based study on the benefits of community care of glaucoma by specially qualified optometrists is the first of its kind and will impact on the implementation and further consultations of the newly published NICE guidelines on glaucoma referral.

Funding;
2009: West Anglia Comprehensive Local Research Network - £5,000, Medical Research Council - £20,000 and Knowledge Transfer Partnership - £117,000.

Collaborations

The Health Innovation and Education Cluster (HIEC) is an initiative set up by the Department of Health in collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University, UCL-Partners and Queen Mary London to enable the delivery of good quality audit and research in a timely manner to ensure patient benefit is maximised. The North London and Essex cluster incorporates the Eyes and Vision workstream where Prof Rupert Bourne facilitates the work of the glaucoma fellow Dr Gokulan Ratnarajan. They have collected data from a multi-site glaucoma referral refinement project which has shown the benefit to the patients as well as cost saving for the health service. They are also in the process of developing a pan North Central London cluster glaucoma referral refinement scheme which will ensure uniformity in guidelines, pathways and referral forms for a large population. This scheme follows the most recent guidelines and the aim is to diffuse this work to other areas in London and Essex.

Glaucoma Research Project