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Ophthalmic Public Health Group

Our multidisciplinary group undertake public health research related to the quality and safety of eye care.

Our high quality research has a direct impact on individuals accessing and delivering eye care services, mainly in primary care, with respect to the improvement of health and eye care quality and safety.

The scope of our research includes, but is not limited to, service evaluations, interrogating large datasets and seeking the perspectives of patients, carers, health care staff and organisational management, using mixed methods.

Aims

Our primary aim is to plan and implement public health research related to eye care. The specific aims include:

  • Widening our network to work with collaborators from others in Cardiff University and externally.
  • Supporting strategic oversight of the research underpinning the development of the eye care pathways in Wales.
  • Work directly with NHS staff and patients in order to develop exemplars for practice improvement through partnered working.
  • Undertaking engagement activities to gain feedback from patients and the public on our research and to disseminate our findings.
  • Undertaking knowledge transfer activities in the form of problem identification workshops, involving clinicians and NHS representatives.
  • Engaging with the third sector and other organisations with the purpose of policy influencing, consistent with the development of high quality impact cases.

Developing areas of research include:

  • Evaluations of the transition from hospital care to primary care.
  • Evaluations of non-medical healthcare professional co-management and virtual clinics.
  • Use of electronic medical records (EMRs) and database construction.
  • Artificial intelligence innovations in streamlining care pathways.
  • Selection of appropriate measures from a patient perspective.
  • The education of healthcare professionals.
  • Development of multilevel care pathways.
  • Use of technology and other interventions to support rehabilitative strategies in individuals with vision impairment.
  • Patient safety in eye care.
  • Depression screening in eye care.
  • Health economic studies relating to eye care services.

Selected publications

Transforming Eye Care Services Wales

This project aims to evaluate the enhanced eye care services delivered by optometrists in primary care, using patient reported experience measures (PREM). As part of the project, the initial development of the PREM will include a preliminary validation using outcomes from different areas across the service. The project is funded as part of the Accelerate scheme, supported by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO). Lead researchers on the project are Dr Angharad Hobby, Dr Jennifer Acton and Prof Barbara Ryan. The PREM validation is being undertaken in collaboration with Swansea University (Prof Deborah Fitzsimmons, Dr Pippa Anderson, Dr Mari Jones).

Evaluation of errors in the delivery of care to patients with eye-related problems

Funded by KESS2 East, this project aims to evaluate errors in the delivery of care to patients with eye-related problems.

Key aspects of the project:

  • Development and testing of a patient safety incident reporting system for optometry in Wales.
  • Mixed methods analysis of patient safety incident reports describing unsafe eye care in England and Wales.
  • Stakeholder consensus on the nature of avoidable unsafe eye care.

You can view the supporting guidance for optometrists reporting serious incidents on this document.

The Principal Investigator for the project is Dr Jennifer Acton and the Co-Investigator is Andy Carson-Stevens.

Acute Eye Care Project

The Acute Eye Care project is a collaboration with SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) and is an evaluation of outcomes from individuals receiving care for acute eye conditions from different healthcare services. The project is a Wales-wide data analysis of prescribing for acute eye conditions. The Principal Investigator is Dr Jennifer Acton.

Hospital to Community

Hospital to Community aims to identify the value of optometrists monitoring & managing chronic sight threatening eye disease in primary care. It is an evaluation of the potential patient benefit & value of enhanced optometry services, provided by primary care-based optometrists rather than the hospital eye service, of managing and monitoring people with the sight threatening & chronic conditions wet macular degeneration or glaucoma. A longer term goal is to further analyse a patient reported experience measure, in order to develop an instrument suitable to embed into clinical practice. The Principal Investigator is Professor Barbara Ryan.

Service evaluation of the Aneurin Bevan Health Board Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration Referral Refinement service

This project aims to evaluate the Ophthalmic Diagnostic and Treatment Centre (ODTC) in Specsavers Austin Friars Newport as part of an MSc Project by Bethan Pugh. It will evaluate of the referral refinement service in the context of capacity, waiting times and patient feedback.

Project supervisors are Barbara Ryan and Rachel North.

Primary care Optometric Referral Refinement & Monitoring for Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration

This project is an overall evaluation of Stakeholder Experience in Wales KESS 2 East Wales MRes. Principal Investigators are Mark Davies and Sharon Beatty.

Academic staff

Dr Jennifer Acton

Dr Jennifer Acton

Senior Lecturer & Director of Recruitment and Admissions

Email
actonj@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2087 0203
Professor Alison Bullock

Professor Alison Bullock

Director of Research, Professor - CUREMeDE

Email
bullockad@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0) 29 2087 0780
Professor Andrew Carson-Stevens

Professor Andrew Carson-Stevens

Clinical Professor of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

Email
carson-stevensap@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2068 7779
Dr Angharad Hobby

Dr Angharad Hobby

Email
hobbyae2@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2087 0588
Marek Karas

Marek Karas

Postgraduate Taught module leader (off-site)

Email
karasm@cardiff.ac.uk
Professor James E Morgan

Professor James E Morgan

Professor in Ophthalmology, Consultant Ophthalmologist

Email
morganje3@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2074 3222
Professor Rachel North

Professor Rachel North

Professor of Optometry

Email
north@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2087 5114
Professor Barbara Ryan

Professor Barbara Ryan

Director Postgraduate Taught Programmes and WOPEC Co-Director

Email
ryanb@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 70233
Dr Mathew Smith

Dr Mathew Smith

Reader and Director of Learning and Teaching

Email
smithmw1@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2087 9286
Dr Ashley Wood

Dr Ashley Wood

Lecturer

Email
wooda2@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75063

Postgraduate students

Associated staff

Sharon Beatty

Sharon Beatty

Email
beattys@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 70549
Dr Claire Nollett

Dr Claire Nollett

Research Fellow and Academic Lead for Public Involvement and Engagement

Email
nollettcl@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2068 7187
Our research delivers advances in knowledge to facilitate detection, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of vision disorders to improve quality of life.