Professor Bourne’s research marks decade milestone

This month marks the 10^th anniversary of a global research project led by a professor at Anglia Ruskin University.

Professor Rupert Bourne has led the Vision Loss Expert Group (VLEG) for the last decade in compiling the Global Vision Database, a record of population-based prevalence eye surveys that date from 1980 to 2014.

The database, which includes estimates around the number of blind and vision-impaired people by region, age, gender and cause, forms part of a larger Global Burden of Disease study, which is the most comprehensive worldwide epidemiological study to date.

To mark the milestone anniversary, the VLEG has worked with NASA to create an illustration of a globe, on which the key data from the research will be projected. The World Vision on a Sphere entitled exhibit will be displayed during the annual meeting of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) being held in Baltimore, US, this week.

Reflecting on the milestone, Professor Bourne, Professor of Ophthalmology at Anglia Ruskin’s Vision and Eye Research Unit, said: “The Global Vision Database has been a 10-year project that is hugely influential in helping policy-makers and healthcare providers identify trends and patterns in eye disorders and aid treatment and prevention. This exhibit is a fitting way to showcase our research.”

More information about the Global Vision Database can be found on its website.