Hospital and Specialty Optometrists Conference

Andrew Tompkin is a consultant hospital optometrist with over 40 years’ of clinical experience. After initially working at Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital he was appointed as head of department of optometry in Liverpool. In addition to being a highly experienced hospital optometrist, he holds an MBA from Liverpool Business School, and is a chartered manager and fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

His current role is as a divisional senior leader with responsibility for ophthalmology digital innovation. He manages effective teams across various disciplines, including optometrists, eye donation, clinical scientists, and ophthalmic science practitioners and technicians within his multidisciplinary role as head of ophthalmology support services. Andrew is also Secretary to the AOP Hospital Optometrists Committee.

Aneel Suri is a principal contact lens optometrist and senior cornea and external disease optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He has over 15 years’ of clinical experience in all aspects of medical contact lenses and currently leads in both corneal and scleral lens clinics as well as running the West London contact lens service.

Aneel continues his second role at Moorfields within a consultant-led clinic as a cornea and external disease optometrist. Postgraduate qualifications include a master’s in clinical optometry and independent prescribing.

Ann Barrett is an advanced specialist optometrist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. She works in the acute referral clinic and the glaucoma service as well as supporting the paediatric and adult low vision services. Ann also works part-time at two local independent practices.

Claire Melvin is deputy head optometrist in the ophthalmology department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary undertaking extended specialist clinical activities, mainly in the medical retina service. She has also worked within the corneal service and paediatric contact lens clinics for nearly 20 years.

Claire is a member of the AOP Hospital Optometry Committee, a peer review facilitator for NHS Education for Scotland, and participates in regular medical retina multidisciplinary case discussions within NHS Grampian.

Elizabeth Dinsdale is a specialist optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She has six years of experience in the medical contact lens service including RGP, scleral, and specialist soft contact lenses. Elizabeth also has experience in extended role clinics including corneal, adnexal, cataract, and glaucoma. She holds an MSc in advanced clinical practice in ophthalmology with higher certificates in glaucoma and contact lenses and a professional certificate in medical retina.

Emma McVeigh is a principal optometrist in the contact lens service and optometry-led cataract service at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She has a keen interest in contact lenses, paediatrics and research while also enjoying working in corneal, glaucoma and cataract clinics.

After gaining her independent prescribing qualification, Emma also completed the Moorfields laser course and now delivers YAG laser capsulotomies in the cataract service. She currently works in both adult and paediatric contact lens clinics and is the lead optometrist on an ongoing contact lens research project into a new lens design for keratoconus.

Hans Sunassee began his optical career with No7 Contact Lenses in 2008 and was responsible for delivering training on complex contact lens designs, including fitting and troubleshooting within busy hospital clinics. Hans has delivered various CPD-accredited workshops and lectures to ECPs and played a key role in launching new products into the UK contact lens market.

Hans’ current role with Menicon is to continue to support, educate, and train ECPs in specialist contact lens fitting within NHS and high street practices by delivering training and education.

Dr Jane Macnaughton completed her pre-registration year under Janet Silver’s supervision at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1990. She remained working there for several years until taking a teaching role at City, University of London. Jane has remained working within both the hospital, sight loss and education sectors for over thirty years and currently works at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust where she is the optometric lead for the county’s low vision service.

Alongside her hospital role, Jane also works as a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her research interests include rehabilitation needs of adults with visual impairment.

Jane has published two successful textbooks for low vision practitioners and vision rehabilitation specialists: Eye Essentials, Low Vision Assessment (2005), and The Practical Management of Visual Impairment (2018).

Dr Jason Jedlicka is a professor at the Indiana University School of Optometry and the director of the Cornea and Contact Lens Service. He is a diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry's Cornea, Contact Lens, and Refractive Technologies Section, a past president of the Scleral Lens Education Society, and a fellow and board member of the Contact Lens Society of America.

He has contributed to multiple textbooks as an author on the topic of GP lenses. He was the recipient of the GP Lens Institute Practitioner of the Year Award for 2021 and the Scleral Lens Education Society Scleral Practitioner of the Year for 2023. He is the co-creator of the Zenlens scleral lens.

Josie Barlow is a dispensing optician and contact lens optician and has been in optics for over 30 years and has worked in both independent and multiple practice. For the last 20 years she has worked for contact lens manufacturers and has developed and delivered CPD, training, and other lectures and workshops on a wide range of subjects. She specialises in complex contact lens fitting and advising peers in this area.

Josie is also a former council member of the BCLA. Working for Menicon Ltd, Josie is involved in product training on all Menicon devices and is involved in product development and works closely with education providers training the next generation of eye care practitioners.

Katie Etherton is a specialist optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and has worked in the hospital medical contact lens service for seven years. She has extensive experience in fitting corneal ectasia and pathologies with RGP, mini-scleral, full diameter scleral, therapeutic and cosmetic lenses. Katie also has a broad range of experience in extended role clinics including external disease A&E.

She holds independent prescriber status and has an MSc in advanced clinical practice in ophthalmology with higher certificates in glaucoma and contact lenses, and a professional certificate in medical retina.

Lynne Speedwell is head of optometry at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and a principal optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She specialises in paediatric optometry, and in contact lenses for abnormal ocular conditions to patients of all ages.

She is co-editor of Phillips & Speedwell Contact Lenses published by Elsevier and has authored chapters in other books, written or co-written several papers, and produced various information booklets for patients, including a paediatric aphakia booklet for hospital patients and the keratoconus booklet for the UK Keratoconus Group. She was the recipient of the Giles van Colle Memorial Prize in 2015 for her work on contact lenses for pathological conditions in children.

Madeleine Drake is senior dispensing optician at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. She has 25 years’ experience in optics which began as a lab technician. Her practice focuses on low vision and complex dispensing.

Matt Roney is a specialist optometrist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital within the Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust. His specialisation is primarily focused on glaucoma and acute ophthalmology and holds a diploma in glaucoma, along with advanced qualifications in therapeutics and independent prescribing.

Matt is an honorary clinical fellow in ophthalmology at the University of Liverpool and also holds a position at the University of Hertfordshire, offering guidance and assessments in glaucoma and independent prescribing to graduate optometrists. He has recently embarked on a PhD with the University of Liverpool where his research focuses on novel imaging modalities to enhance the success of various glaucoma filtration surgeries.

Michael Bowen is the director of knowledge and research at the College of Optometrists, where he is responsible for the strategic development of the College's research activities and knowledge resources. Michael has led various research projects within the sector, including PrOVIDe - which gathered data on the prevalence of visual impairment among people living with dementia in England.

Michael has been involved in research to develop evidence-based tools to assess frailty; international practice recommendations for people with vision, hearing and cognition impairments; and to identify the best tests to discriminate between ocular and cortical causes of visual impairment. Michael also has interests in AI and is working to develop clinical networks to investigate the role AI can play in refining glaucoma detection and co-management.

Dr Mohammed Abid is an advanced clinical optometrist at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (MREH), specialising in medical retina. He has a keen interest in diabetic eye disease and the use of OCT and OCT-A in macular and retinal disease. He achieved his doctorate in optometry through Aston University, with research focused on an optometry-led macular triaging virtual clinic at MREH.

Naomi O’Brart graduated from Cardiff University in 2015. She completed her pre-registration year at Colchester Hospital in 2016. Following this, she began a two-year post at Moorfields Eye Hospital as a resident optometrist working in core and extended role clinics.

Naomi currently works as a principal optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital working in external disease, cataract and contact lens services. Alongside this she is the co-module lead for the cataract and advanced clinical practice modules which form part of the University College London (UCL) and Moorfields higher qualifications programs.

Dr Navneet Gupta is an experienced optometrist holding the College of Optometrists’ diploma in independent prescribing and higher certificate in glaucoma. He is currently the education lead for Thea Pharmaceuticals UK. His clinical experience includes working in various hospital eye service clinics providing glaucoma care, post-op cataract care, and supporting ophthalmologists in medical retina and general clinics. He has also worked in primary care and refractive surgery clinics.

Nicola has worked at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (MREH) for three years and has been in her current role as advanced clinical optometrist in medical retina for 18 months. She completed her PhD at Cardiff University in 2018 and following a short research post decided to return to the NHS. At MREH, she works in the macular treatment centre, diabetic clinics and in the emergency macular clinics. She is also a postgraduate clinical tutor for the medical retina course at Cardiff University.

Rachel Bond is a specialist optometrist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. She works mainly in the paediatric eye clinic at St James’s University Hospital. The main part of her role is supporting the paediatric ophthalmologists with refraction and contact lens fitting for all children from a few weeks old to adulthood, including fitting aphakic lenses for babies following cataract surgery. Rachel also works in the paediatric and adult low vision service.

Professor Ron Douglas graduated in biology from the University of Sussex in 1973 and completed a PhD on vision in rainbow trout at the University of Stirling in 1980. There followed a two-year Royal Society postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ulm continuing to work on fish vision and a one-year fellowship back at Sussex studying depth perception in amphibia.

From 1984 until retirement in 2021 he tried with varying degrees of success to teach general and ocular biology to optometry students at City, University of London. Although his research has spanned most types of vertebrate, from mice and reindeer to fish, frogs, and snakes, his love has remained with the creatures inhabiting the deep ocean. To this end, he has taken part in numerous oceanic research expeditions in areas ranging from the South Pacific Islands and the Caribbean to Rockall! He has published over 150 research papers and books and is a frequent contributor to the print and broadcast media.

Saanan Umeed is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust where he leads the AMD service, and also has a special interest in diabetic eye disease. He has over 26 years of experience in clinical ophthalmology, having performed over 8,000 cataract surgeries and over 10,000 intravitreal injections. He is also a visiting senior lecturer at Aston University.

Scott Hau is a principal optometrist and research optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He works in numerous external role ophthalmology clinics including A&E, cornea/external disease, glaucoma, laser, adnexal/minor ops, and medical retina/uveitis.

He has been instrumental in developing a lot of the optometry extended-role clinics at Moorfields Eye Hospital and is also the optometry lead for laser and independent prescribing. His main research interest is anterior segment imaging, especially in the fields of in vivo confocal microscopy and anterior segment OCT, and he has published and lectured widely in these areas.

Shreeti Lakhani is a consultant optometrist of the contact lens service at Moorfields Eye Hospital where she has worked for 10 years. She has a specialist interest in designing RGP corneal lenses, scleral lenses and paediatric contact lenses. She has a diploma in clinical optometry, is an independent prescriber and is a pre-registration supervisor. She also works as an extended role optometrist in the A&E department at Moorfields.

Dr Sònia Travé Huarte is a postdoctoral researcher and optometrist at Aston University. She specialises in dry eye diagnostics and treatments, anterior ocular surface disease management, specialty contact lenses, meibomian gland dysfunction, and corneal pain.

She is a member of the International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE), a fellow of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA), and an associate fellow of the higher education academy. She is the fellowship lead and academic deputy chair for the BCLA and clinical supervisor on the optometry programme at Aston University.

Dr Subash Sukumar is a specialist optometrist at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. He holds a PhD, and a diploma in glaucoma and is an independent prescriber.

Dr Vijay Anand is the deputy head of optometry at Moorfields Eye Hospital and current chair of the AOP’s Hospital Optometry Committee. His role as deputy head involves managing and profiling over 160 optometrists across all subspecialty and core ophthalmology services.

Vijay currently works in extended role clinics in cornea, cataract, urgent care, and early keratoconus management clinics and medical contact lenses, and has previously worked within glaucoma, medical retina, and low vision clinics in his 20 years of hospital service. He was involved in setting up the optometrist-led keratoconus service, optometrist-led glaucoma, and urgent care clinics at Moorfields. He has lectured both nationally and internationally on medical contact lenses, keratoconus management, non-medical cataract clinics, referral refinement for optometrists, and glaucoma tube assessment for optometrists.

He has authored a chapter in the latest edition of Phillips & Speedwell Contact Lenses 6th edition and is involved with several research projects within the trust in keratoconus and contact lenses.

Yetunde Obadeyi is a principal optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and is currently joint head of the contact lens service. She was awarded an MSc in clinical optometry with distinction from City, University of London, and holds a diploma in therapeutics (Independent Prescribing) a higher certificate in glaucoma, and is currently working towards a diploma in glaucoma.

Yetunde has extensive experience in all aspects of medical contact lens fitting with a special interest in complex paediatric medical contact lens fitting and management.