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Clare Gilbert is a British ophthalmologist, professor and researcher who focuses on blindness in children. She is based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Gilbert was born in Croydon and educated at Croydon High School for Girls (GPDST). She qualified in medicine at Bristol University in 1976. After qualifying, she worked as a clinical ophthalmologist in Bristol Eye Hospital for 3 years, and then in Leeds and Bradford for 7 years. She then worked as an MD in the Department of Pathology at the Institute of Ophthalmology (IoO), London (1987-1990). During this time she took part in a clinical trial of Mectizan for the treatment of onchocerciasis in Sierra Leone.
In 1990, she joined the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), Department of Preventive Ophthalmology at the IoO, and in 1995 completed an MSc in Epidemiology at LSHTM. [1] In 2002 the group moved to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Gilbert co-directed ICEH between 2002 and 2020. [2] Gilbert was appointed as Professor of International Eye Health in 2008.
Gilbert's research focus is on the frequency, causes, and control of blinding eye diseases in children in low and middle-income countries; glaucoma in Africa, and integrating primary eye care for children into primary health care in Africa.
One of Gilbert's contributions was to develop a system for classifying the causes of blindness in children in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). Data collected led to this becoming one of the priorities of the global strategy of WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), the VISION 2020 - the Right to Sight strategy, [3] as well as the development and planning of eye care programs for children in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Gilbert has also researched on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a blinding eye condition that can affect infants born preterm. Cataracts in children and refractive errors are other areas of research interest.
Other areas of Gilbert's research include national population-based surveys of blindness and visual impairment in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, glaucoma, and school eye health. [4]
Gilbert has published almost 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has written 27 book chapters. She has also supervised and examined 15 Ph.D./MD students.
Gilbert has taught at the IoO and on the Masters in Public Health for Eye Care at the LSHTH. She teaches on the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and has contributed to several massive online open-access courses (MOOC), including one on retinopathy of prematurity.
Gilbert is a technical/scientific advisor to a number of organisations, including the WHO; USAID's Child Blindness Program; the International Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Council; the School Eye Health Rapid Assessment project, USAID; iHOPE, Welcome Trust, India; Velux Stiftung, Switzerland; Sightsavers; and the Vision Impact Institute. She has been involved with a number of working groups for the IAPB and led the development of school eye health guidelines for low and middle-income countries. [5]
Gilbert also initiated and led a large-scale pilot projects for ROP and for diabetic retinopathy in India, supported by the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust between 2012 and 2019. [6]
The National Eye Institute (NEI) is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The mission of NEI is "to eliminate vision loss and improve quality of life through vision research." NEI consists of two major branches for research: an extramural branch that funds studies outside NIH and an intramural branch that funds research on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Most of the NEI budget funds extramural research.
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), also called retrolental fibroplasia (RLF) and Terry syndrome, is a disease of the eye affecting prematurely born babies generally having received neonatal intensive care, in which oxygen therapy is used because of the premature development of their lungs. It is thought to be caused by disorganized growth of retinal blood vessels and may result in scarring and retinal detachment. ROP can be mild and may resolve spontaneously, but it may lead to blindness in serious cases. Thus, all preterm babies are at risk for ROP, and very low birth-weight is an additional risk factor. Both oxygen toxicity and relative hypoxia can contribute to the development of ROP.
An eye care professional is an individual who provides a service related to the eyes or vision. It is any healthcare worker involved in eye care, from one with a small amount of post-secondary training to practitioners with a doctoral level of education.
Patricia Era Bath was an American ophthalmologist and humanitarian. She became the first female member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, the first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and the first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American to serve as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University. She was also the first African-American woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. A holder of five patents, she founded the non-profit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.
Ian Jeffrey Constable is an Australian ophthalmologist and the founder and director of the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Western Australia. He was the Foundation Lions Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Western Australia, and the Foundation Director of UWA's Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science. He is now Patron of the Lions Eye Institute.
The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) is an international organisation that represents professional associations of ophthalmologists. It is headquartered in Brussels.
The John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah is an ophthalmology clinical care and research facility in the Mountain West.
The eye care system in Ghana can be said to be one in its infant or growing stages. Today there are less than 300 eye care professionals taking care of the eye needs of over 23 million Ghanaians.
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is the University of Miami School of Medicine's ophthalmic care, research, and education center. The institute is based in the Health District of Miami, Florida, and has been ranked consistently as the best eye hospital and vision research center in the nation.
The Organisation for the Prevention of Blindness is an international non-governmental organisation whose actions today focus exclusively on French-speaking countries in Africa. Their mission is to preserve and restore sight amongst some of the most under-privileged communities in the region. The OPC's principal actions concern blindness prevention, treatment and the elimination of blinding diseases, such as onchocerciasis, trachoma, glaucoma and cataracts as well as formal ophthalmological training.
The Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) was created in 1995 by Dr. Geoffrey Tabin and Dr. Sanduk Ruit with a goal of establishing a sustainable eye care infrastructure in the Himalaya. HCP empowers local doctors to provide ophthalmic care through skills-transfer and education. From its beginning, HCP responds to a pressing need for eye care in the Himalayan region. With programs in Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Bhutan and India they have been able to restore sight to over 1.4 million people since 1995.
Childhood blindness is an important contribution to the national prevalence of the disability of blindness. Blindness in children can be defined as a visual acuity of <3/60 in the eye with better vision of a child under 16 years of age. This generally means that the child cannot see an object 10 feet away, that another child could see if it was 200 feet away.
Gullapalli Nageswara Rao is an Indian ophthalmologist, the chairman of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI) and the founder of the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. A former associate professor at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Rochester, Rao is a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2002, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. He was elected in 2017 to the Ophthalmology Hall of Fame instituted by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.
Yog Raj Sharma is an Indian ophthalmologist and ex-chief of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, the apex body of the National Programme for the Control of Blindness, a Government of India initiative to reduce the prevalence of blindness in India. He is the Chairman of the Task Force on Prevention and Control of Diabetic Retinopathy Group and the Co-Chairman of the National Task Force on Prevention of Blindness from Retinopathy of Prematurity under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India. An advisor to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. Sharma was honored by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. In 2005, Yog Raj Sharma's published article on "Pars plana vitrectomy vs scleral buckling in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment" in Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica and in November 2021, American society of retina specialists cited it as top 100 publications on retinal detachment management in the last ~121 years. Of these top hundred publications, only nineteen countries contributed, three of the contributing countries were Asian and from India this study was the sole contribution. Dr Sharma called it 'the singular biggest achievement of his career" in an article published in Daily Excelsior, Jammu in December 2021.
Rohit Varma is an Indian-American ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine. In 2014, he was named director of the USC Eye Institute and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology for Keck School of Medicine of USC. In March 2016, Varma was named the interim dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and in November was named dean. In October 2017, USC announced that he stepped down as dean. In October 2018, Varma became the founding director of the Southern California Eyecare and Vision Research Institute.
Eye Care Foundation (ECF) is an international charity organisation active in over 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin-America.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is a global alliance of eye health organisations working for the prevention of blindness and vision impairment. IAPB was established in 1975 to work as an umbrella body for global blindness prevention activities. In 1999, IAPB and the World Health Organization launched Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness, which has achieved some success, though it did not meet all its goals.
Bharti Kashyap Navigating Health Care Reform in Jharkhand From a crusader against blindness to Cervical cancer activist the extraordinary success and figures of cervical cancer eradication campaign, eye donation awareness campaign, diabetic retinopathy screening, “Jyot Se Jyot Jalao” campaign and vision protection campaign being run in Jharkhand over the past three decades by Dr. Bharti Kashyap is a testament to the fact that she has carried out the campaigns with full devotion and dedication and has successfully achieved the set targets. Nari Shakti puruskar Awardee Dr Bharti Kashyap is an Indian ophthalmologist and great family and child welfare social worker in Jharkhand, also known as vision and Janni suraksha Lady. She is honoured with Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2017 by hon'ble president of India and is a five-time recipient of the National IMA Award for the welfare of the underprivileged section of society
Sheila Kay West is an American ophthalmologist who is the El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. She is also the vice-chair for Research.
Van Charles Lansingh is a Mexican ophthalmologist, clinician-scientist and author, specialising in public health. He is currently a faculty at Mexican Institute of Ophthalmology (IMO), Querétaro, Mexico where he serves as Director, International Affairs. He is also a voluntary assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami, Florida and serves as the chief medical officer at HelpMeSee, a global non-profit training organisation.
