National diabetic eye screening conference 2021: Fighting the good fight

Simon Harding has led the development of the early detection and medical management of retinal diseases locally, nationally, and internationally, particularly in relation to diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.  He has current research programmes in diabetic eye disease (screening, early detection, treatment, imaging, large data, risk factors/biomarkers), retinal structure and function and cerebral malaria. He has written or contributed to 180 peer-reviewed publications and is leading/collaborating in grants totalling over £29 million. 

As Chair of Clinical Ophthalmology, he is leading a major expansion of translational eye research and training within Liverpool linking scientists and clinicians within the University and NHS, and nationally and internationally. He has recently completed a term as Clinical Director of RD&I at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust and is Past President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Eye Complications Group (EASDec).

Mr Aldington is a professionally qualified manager and scientific photographer, with over 39 years of experience in medical research and the clinical healthcare environment; particularly related to eye complications associated with diabetes. Since 1982 Mr Aldington has been centrally involved in the detection and assessment of diabetic retinopathy for clinical and research purposes, research design and management, ophthalmic retinal imaging and the qualification and professional development of healthcare staff. He has many years of experience of developing and delivering core educational and CPD content related to retinopathy and imaging for a wide range of professional groups. Co-founder and ultimately Director and Principal Investigator for the internationally acclaimed Retinopathy Grading Centre at Imperial College London at Hammersmith Hospital.

Mr Aldington successfully attracted high-profile international studies for which we provided detection, assessment, and classification of diabetic retinopathy. He has been fortunate to have collaborated with most of the world leaders in this field. Leaving Imperial in 2008, Mr Aldington moved to Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust to help develop and deliver core aspects of the new NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (NDESP) including 2008-12 as National Education Lead for NDESP. Mr Aldington manages a small team providing professional qualifications in and outside the UK. He is Senior Tutor for the Cert. HE in Diabetic Retinopathy Screening and a Module Tutor for the Foundation Degree in OCT, both awarded by the University of Gloucestershire.

He also continues to manage the research portfolio of our Gloucestershire Retinal Research Group, with over 15 clinical research trials and academic research projects and is the Principal Investigator for some of their retinopathy assessment (grading) studies. Mr Aldington has WoS and Scholar Google h-index scores of 29 and 33 respectively (Researcher ID: G-7828-2012, ORCID-ID: 0000-0003-1808-3580i10-index of 53) RG Score of 37 with over 28,000 citations from over 100 publications (including group publications) with over 1000 citations/year since 2003.

Tunde Peto is Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at Queen’s University Belfast where she is responsible for teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her remit also covers the development of International image analysis, training and educating in Countries throughout the world. In addition to her academic work, Professor Peto is also responsible for the Belfast Ophthalmic Reading Centre and a wide research portfolio.

Her main interest has always been common blinding retinal diseases, with special emphasis on characterisation of diabetic retinopathy and its imaging modalities. Professor Peto has been involved in UK National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening programmes since 2002, she was clinical lead for London programmes and is currently the clinical lead for the Northern Irish Programme and the clinical lead for diabetic eye at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Professor Tunde Peto trained in Hungary and Australia and spent 15 years at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London before taking up her current position in Belfast.

Professor Anne Mackie is the Director of Screening for Public Health England. Anne has worked in Public Health for nearly 20 years across London and the South East. Previous roles have included medical director of the National Specialist Commissioning Advisory Group, Director of Public Health in Kent and Director of Public Health in South West London. Latterly Anne was Director of Public Health for London SHA before taking on her current post in August 2007. She lives in London with her partner and their daughter.