The Professor Rachel Pilling episode

Rachel became a consultant paediatric ophthalmologist at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2010 and was appointed as Professor of special needs and learning disability eye care at the University of Bradford in 2020. She has published guidance on eye care for those with learning disabilities for national organisations and developed quality standards for eye departments. She has spoken to OT about her career path into medicine and ophthalmology, and the work of the special schools.

Here are four things we learned about Rachel when recording The OT Podcast.

1 Well-known neighbours

Rachel describes herself as “a doctor who really wished they were an optometrist.”

The ophthalmologist grew up in a family of medics and was initially determined not to become one. She had an interest in science in her early childhood and her proximity to well-known hospital optometrist Andrew Tompkins, who was her next-door neighbour when growing up, helped shape her career ambitions.

Ultimately, she pursued medicine and ophthalmology, but highlighted that today’s optometry profession offers so many career options compared to the possible pathways available in the 1990s when she was making decisions as a teenager.

2 “I was always going to be a paediatric ophthalmologist”

Having opted to study medicine, Rachel told OT that she “was always going to be a paediatric ophthalmologist” from the very beginning of her medical career.

Rachel said she was drawn to the medical specialty because patients are often not seriously ill, unlike in other areas of medicine, and because it allows clinicians to help large numbers of people every day.

“There’s many opportunities to improve people’s lives – that is the thing for me,” she said.

The ability to restore or significantly improve a person’s vision is what continues to motivate her in her work in eye care and neurodiversity research today.

3 Rachel was appointed as the first UK professor of special needs and learning disabilities eye care

Rachel was appointed as the UK’s first professor of special needs and learning disability eye care, which has helped bring national attention to an underserved area.

The ophthalmologist praised the contributions of orthoptists, optometrists and ophthalmologists across the UK who helped develop national guidance and specialist services, and supported the area in gaining recognition.

Having asked if she could create the title herself on being awarded a professorship, Rachel said she opted for the wording as she felt: “If it’s a professor of something, then it must be a real thing. It must be an area of real need, an area of interest and an area where research is ongoing.”

She noted that the title helped open doors for what she and her peers were trying to achieve for eye care for people with learning difficulties.

4 An optometry army

Rachel said the UK’s optometry profession is better equipped to support patients with learning disabilities and additional needs as a result of growing specialist training and changes in professional culture.

She highlighted that the goal was to empower and educate professions to ensure that optometrists and ophthalmologists could deliver accessible eye care to those with additional needs.

She recognised optometrist Lisa Donaldson for helping “create an army” of practitioners with the confidence to adapt eye examinations for patients with complex needs.

The Professor Rachel Pilling episode

OT will release a new episode of The OT Podcast bimonthly. You can listen to The OT Podcast on our website, or via all the main podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Castbox. Be sure to catch-up and listen to other episodes, featuring experts including Imran Hakim, Ian Cameron, Dame Mary Perkins, and Professor Nicola Logan.

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