Fellowships, Research &Technology

Chairman

Peek (Portable Eye Examination Kit) aims to improve ophthalmic health in low-income countries by increasing access to eye care by utilising smartphone technology (apps and custom made hardware) and patient management systems. This allows non-experts to assess the vision and eye health of people living in the remotest of settings and at a very low cost and link them with healthcare providers. Peek can be used to diagnose blindness, visual impairment, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Peek is being utilised for use in outreach, school screening, diabetic retinopathy screening and population-based surveys.

PhD student, Ophthalmologist and member of the Peek team

Dr Hillary Rono works as an ophthalmologist in the Turkana and West Pokot provinces of Kenya. He serves a population of 2.5 million people, providing eye care to those who live in very rural communities, where causes of avoidable blindness, such as trachoma, are more common, but where access to eye care services is most challenging.

He has been working with the Peek Team to trial the smartphone app’s effectiveness and support its development. He sees Peek as a revolution in eye care.

The Trust is funding Dr Rono’s PhD through the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research project aims to investigate whether Peek can improve the quality of eye care services in eye clinics, and also increase access to these services in Kenya.

The skills that he gains through this will equip him to not only improve his own work, but will enhance his management and training skills to help develop a new cohort of eye health professionals.

MSc graduate

Dr Desirée Murray is an ophthalmologist, University lecturer and Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium scholar from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She has a special interest in the prevention of blindness, with an emphasis on glaucoma. The Caribbean has the highest prevalence of glaucoma in the world and The World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization recognises glaucoma as the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the region.

In November 2015, Dr Murray was awarded a Masters degree in Public Health for Eye Care through the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium. She credits her studies with increasing her knowledge and understanding of public health, including the development and implementation of national blindness prevention policies. Her interest in glaucoma directed her to analyse glaucoma services in Trinidad and Tobago for the research component of her MSc, which she is working to improve.

Research Fellow

Dr Rajan Shukla has more than 21 years of experience in the health care sector.

He is currently working on programmes to improve access to services for prevention of blindness from diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity by integrating eye care into diabetes care and neonatal care. He is currently undertaking a PhD as Research Fellow of the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium at the International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The primary goal of his PhD research project is to improve access to retinal examination for early detection of ROP at neonatal care units to prevent premature infants from becoming needlessly blind.

Research Fellow

Dr Sucheta Kulkarni is an Ophthalmologist and specialises in diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity. She has been working in H V Desai Eye Hospital, Pune, India, since 2000 where she is Associate Medical Director.

Having worked in the field of retinopathy of prematurity for over six years, and aware of a significant lack in research in this area, she was motivated to apply for the MSc Public Health for Eye Care course at the International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was subsequently awarded a scholarship from the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium funded by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.

Once she completes her course, she plans to serve her community back home, with a newly acquired open and critical outlook. She also wishes to improve the postgraduate teaching programme at her institute with newly gained knowledge and skills.

Research Fellow

Dr Rosemary Ngwu is an ophthalmologist based at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Lagos, the most populated state in Nigeria. LASUTH provides eye care services to people from urban, semi urban and rural communities.

She is currently a member of the Ophthalmologic Society of Nigeria and the Lagos state blindness prevention programme which visits various local government areas, including schools in the state creating awareness of avoidable causes of blindness and its prevention, free screening and surgical services to the people.

Dr Ngwu is currently on a clinical fellowship training in orbit and oculoplasty at Aravind Eye Hospital, India, funded by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, through the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium. Apart from the love and keen interest for the subspecialty, she was acutely aware that there were so many patients around the state with oculoplastic diseases and so very few oculoplastic surgeons to cater for their needs. This training will enable her add to the work force in reducing the burden of oculoplastic diseases, thereby reducing blindness and improving the quality of life of each patient.