SIMULATED OCULAR SURGERY - Key Persons

Andrew trained at The Royal London Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital and St Marys Hospital (Western Eye), and also completed a MD on visual function in glaucoma, supervised by Prof Fred Fitzke and Prof Roger Hitchings at Moorfields/Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, all in London. He undertook a clinical fellowship in glaucoma at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Infirmary, Melbourne, Australia, and also worked as a clinical researcher with the ‘Glaucoma Inheritance Study in Tasmania' (GIST), under Prof David Mackey, as well as acting as an honorary consultant at Hobart Royal Hospital, Tasmania. Andrew is currently a Consultant Ophthalmologist and Glaucoma Specialist, mainly based at Cheltenham General Hospital, part of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHNHSFT). In addition to Gloucestershire Countywide Glaucoma Lead, he is Research Lead for the GHNHSFT surgical division. He has been the PI for a number of research projects, including studies investigating both medical and surgical glaucoma treatments, and novel imaging techniques, including retinal oximetry. He has published in excess of 45 papers, and delivered more than 100 research presentations, as well as contributing to three books on ophthalmology and retinal imaging. He is a medical advisor to the ‘International Glaucoma Association', a Trustee of the ‘Gloucestershire Eye Therapy Trust, a referee for IOVS, Archives of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, BJO and Eye, and also consults for pharmaceutical and instrument companies.

Larry Benjamin trained at The Western Eye Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital and The Oxford Eye Hospital. He was appointed as a Consultant in 1990 and since then has developed interests in cataract surgery, the management of diabetic retinopathy including the use of early vitrectomy and surgical training. He was the first chairman of the Surgical Skills Sub-committee at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists during which he helped to develop the college microsurgical skills courses and chaired the committee, which updated the latest college cataract surgical guidelines. He has served as the Chairman of the Education Committee and Senior Vice President of the college. He has served on the councils of UKISCRS and the ophthalmic section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is currently chair of the microsurgical skills committee at the RCOphth.

Richard Haynes is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon specialising in Vitreoretinal surgery and is the Lead Clinician for the Vitreoretinal service at Bristol Eye Hospital. His ophthalmic training consisted of basic surgical training in Aberdeen and higher surgical training in Nottingham as the Clinical Lecturer. During this time he also undertook a research MD analysing innate defensive immune mechanisms in the eye. This work led to the discovery that the human eye is protected by anti-microbial peptides called defensins (The Lancet. 1998). This was the first identification of a defensin in the eye of any species and for this work he was awarded The Oxford Ophthalmological Congress Founder's Cup in 1999 and 2000. In the year 2000 he was awarded The Royal College of Ophthalmologists Keeler Scholarship and underwent advanced subspecialty training in Vitreoretinal surgery in Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. He has been instrumental in developing the VR Fellowship Programme at the Bristol Eye Hospital and has overseen the training of over 20 VR fellows in the last 10 years. He is also the Royal College of Ophthalmologists Regional Advisor for the Severn Region, and has acted as a College examiner for many years.