National Diabetic Eye Screening Conference 2024: Prioritising People with Diabetes

Dr Janaka Karalliedde is a Clinical Reader in Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in the  School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences, King's College London, and a consultant physician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, UK.

He graduated with a distinction in medicine from the University of London and was awarded a MRC training fellowship and PhD for his research on  cardiovascular and renal disease in diabetes. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed articles and chapters on the subject of diabetic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease and frequently lectures on this topic at national and international meetings. 

Dr Karalliedde is an active clinician, with expertise in managing patients with diabetes related vascular complications and he runs specialist clinics for patients with diabetic kidney and cardiovascular complications at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital.  

Samantha Mann has been a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital since 2009.   

Over the past fourteen years, Samantha has developed a special interest in Diabetic Eye Screening and is the Clinical Lead for the South East London Programme with over 120,000 patients living with diabetes. The Programme covers patients with high levels of ethnic diversity and deprivation and regularly sees advanced levels of pathology, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic .  

She is constantly striving to improve the quality of the service further and has been actively involved in compiling the London OCT scanning protocol for use within diabetic eye screening surveillance pathways. Additionally she is a peer reviewer for the National Screening Programme and sits on the London board for Adult Screening for Diabetic Eye. Additionally she has helped to set up the semi-virtual diabetic clinic at St Thomas’ to reduce the backlog of patients waiting to be seen for their diabetes eye check.  

She has also published a range of articles on age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and eye screening in pregnancy and developed a video called ‘Danny’s Story’ which tells the story of a young male with diabetes blinded through failure to attend his diabetic screening appointments. Her latest project has been creating a video telling the story of three people living with diabetes and their experience of retinal laser treatment.   

She has also co-organised a laser course at St Thomas’ and is part of the simulation laser faculty for ophthalmic trainees across London. She also pioneered a diabetic retinopathy in pregnancy  workshop teaching specialist midwives and has presented at a number of conferences including EURETINA, BARS, The Diabetic Retinopathy Congress at the RSM and EASDEC and is the currently elected present of the British Association of Retinal Screeners. 

Abosede Cole has been a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Bristol Eye Hospital since 2010 with a sub-speciality interest in medical retina disorders. She is also the Clinical Lead for the Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire Diabetic Eye Screening Programme.  

She is actively involved in teaching and mentoring and is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Bristol. She has been a peer reviewer for the National Diabetic Eye Screening Programme and Clinical Lead at Bristol Eye Hospital.  

She has a considerable involvement in clinical research into retinal disorders and is principal investigator for a number of multicentre clinical trials chiefly concerning diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.