Summary

Amblyopia (lazy eye) is a neuro-developmental condition which affects approximately 230,000 children under 7 years of age in the UK. Patients and the public have been involved (PPI) in research priority-setting, identifying a need for further research into amblyopia treatment optimisation. Specifically, there remains a dearth of knowledge about the best methods for occlusion therapy (patching).

Currently, Dr Patel is designing and developing the Moorfields Amblyopia Treatment Outcomes Database (MATOD). The database will be used to address unanswered questions about treatment outcomes from current ‘standard’ care.

In a further 3-year Fellowship, Dr Patel will use a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a prognostic (risk prediction) model based on outcomes from low and high-intensity treatment, which will be combined with outputs from interviews with patients, their parents and clinicians, to build optimised scenario-based treatment plans. Data will also be collected to inform a future randomised-controlled trial, comparing low-intensity ‘gold-standard’ treatment with an optimised regimen identified through the Fellowship.

Principal Investigator

Dr Dipesh E Patel under the supervision of Professors Jugnoo S Rahi and Monica Lakhanpaul

Start date and duration

30/01/18 for 1 year

Partners and collaborators involved.

Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL GOS Institute of Child Health