The Professor James Wolffsohn episode

1 Optometry was never the plan

As a teen contemplating his future career path, James had no intention of being an optometrist. Studying sciences at school, he wanted a career that combined science with practical work.

“Optometry was never in the plan,” he told OT.

“I didn’t want to do straight science, so I started looking for something that would use the sciences,” he added.

After going to school careers fairs, and being unsure about his path, James shared that his mother reminded him that when he was younger, he enjoyed going to the optometrist.

“Although I don’t remember it to this day,” he shared.

A friend’s father was an optometrist, so he spent the day in practice with him, “making the tea and opening the post,” he recalled.

James shared: “I thought, ‘Oh, this will do,”, adding: “I thought that after I finished my degree, I would do something totally different.”

2 Medicine versus PhD

James completed his pre-reg placement at Moorfields Eye Hospital. On qualifying, he considered studying either medicine or pursuing a PhD.

“I was debating either doing a PhD, because I had a friend at university who had done a PhD, totally outside optometry but was encouraging me down that path, or going into medicine.

During my degree, someone had come to talk to us about medicine and how there were fast-track routes into medicine if you'd done a health science. So, I debated those two options,” he shared.

Following advice from his supervisor, Janet Silver, he decided to remain in optometry and undertake further research.

“She said some very wise words to me: ‘You can either be a mediocre medic or a top optometrist’.”

He reflected: “What she was saying was that medicine is vast, whereas optometry is quite niche, and in some ways, you have a bit more scope.”

3 From Four to 400 papers

When James secured his first academic position at Aston University, he had published four papers. Today he has published over 400.

He described collaboration as key to his research career.

“My whole career is built on collaboration. I remember a supervisor very early on saying, ‘Well, I don’t know about collaboration. You put all of this effort in and you get very little back.’ I’ve done quite the opposite. I believe I’ve had huge benefits from collaboration,” James told OT.

James described his core research area as instrumentation “because instrumentation then goes across multiple different areas of eyes and beyond – it opens up lots of possibilities for collaboration.”

He added: “To me, the best science is normally at those interfaces between eye care and other disciplines, where you can really make a difference.”

4 From research into practice

It is important to consider how research developments and advancements are translated and used in practice.

Reflecting of his vast portfolio of research, James shared honestly: “There’s a process to it, and we’ve learned over the years what you do and don’t do.”

For James, the biggest challenge is “getting people to make a change.”

He shared: “There’s a wonderful paper in medicine published in 2011, and the title is The Answer Is 17 Years, What Is the Question? The question was how many years it takes to translate clinical research into clinical practice.”

Checking this stat, James teamed up with Professor Phil Morgan for an editorial in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, where they looked at eye care and discovered that translation takes close to 23 years.

“It is just extraordinary to me that we are so slow in moving forward. This is only 60% adoption – we’re not asking for everybody to do it.”

He added: “Some of that is the pressures of practice, but actually, to me, as someone who has healthcare conditions, that’s unacceptable. I would think that the treatment I’m getting is 20-year-old techniques that are being done on me.”

The OT Podcast

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, Richard Stead, Dame Mary Perkins, and Dr Byki Huntjens.

Remember to subscribe to The OT Podcast to ensure you never miss an episode.