Nystagmus Network UK research workshop 2019.

UK Nystagmus Research Workshop

The Nystagmus Network is today hosting the UK Nystagmus Research Workshop 2019 at the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University. Delegates are joining us from the 6 UK centres of nystagmus research excellence. These are:

The School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University
The Ulverscroft Eye Unit, University of Leicester
Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
The Royal Eye Infirmary, Plymouth
The Academic Unit of Ophthalmology and Orthoptics, University of Sheffield
The University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital

All delegates will also be attending the Nystagmus Network Open Day 2019 at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff on Saturday.

Online Nystagmus Information Pack – one year on

Last November the University of Sheffield orthoptists launched their online Nystagmus Information Pack to great acclaim. The pack was jointly funded by the University of Sheffield, the British and Irish Orthoptic Society and the Nystagmus Network.

The information is invaluable to patients, parents, teachers and clinicians.

Click here for the Information Pack

Try VR at Open Day

The Nystagmus Network is currently funding pioneering research at the University of Sheffield which could really help improve the quality of life of people who acquire nystagmus in adulthood.

Acquired Nystagmus is usually accompanied by oscillopsia, which means that the subject sees a moving image rather than a stable one. This is a particularly disorientating and debilitating symptom of this form of nystagmus.

Dr Helen Griffiths and her team have tapped into virtual reality technology to develop glasses which allow a patient with oscillopsia to see a stable image.

You can try the prototype at Open Day!

Nystagmus research news update from Dr Helen Griffiths at Sheffield University

Helen and her team are working on a virtual reality solution for the problematic sympton of oscillopsia in Acquired Nystagmus.
Helen writes:
“Many thanks to you all at Nystagmus Network and to your partners Fight for Sight for your support, allowing us to continue the VR project work. We have started and have been able to develop a method for the camera within the headset to record eye movements and convert this signal into the visual scene presented in VR. We are pleased with this progress so far.
I hope we can be successful in providing a method for some relief for AN.
We hope to have ethics approval for the device trial in the next 2 to 4 weeks and so I’ll be in touch about recruiting suitable trial participants.”
Nystagmus Network will post details of opportunities to take part in this and all other nystagmus research trials here.
The Nystagmus Network

Training boost for orthoptists

Future generations of orthoptists graduating from Sheffield University will be even better placed to help nystagmus patients thanks to a new £30,000 eye movement recording laboratory. Only two other universities (Liverpool and Glasgow Caledonian) train orthoptists, so Sheffield’s new facility will have big impact on the profession.

Within five years around 250 orthoptists will have trained in the lab, giving them enhanced skills in the diagnosis and management of nystagmus. This means that nystagmus patients in hospitals across the UK – and beyond – will benefit from the new facility. The lab will also help to diagnose patients with nystagmus in both Sheffield Children’s Hospital and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

As well as its role in training new orthoptists, the lab will enable orthoptists in Sheffield University to carry out research. They already plan to develop ways of assessing functional vision in children and adults with nystagmus. Sheffield will also investigate the effect of ageing in patients with nystagmus and whether additional visual stimulation could improve the vision of children with nystagmus.

The Nystagmus Network is contributing £10,000 to the new facility, thanks to a donation from the EBM Charitable Trust. Sheffield University and Health Education Yorkshire & Humber are also contributing £10,000 each. The investment confirms the UK as one of the leading countries in the world for nystagmus research. Nystagmus Network is already funding projects in Cardiff, Leicester, Moorfields (London), Plymouth and Southampton.

Separately, Nystagmus Network has awarded a £1,000 grant to Sheffield to develop a standardised nystagmus information pack for hospitals to give to patients, parents and carers. This project came about after a team of orthoptic lecturers and students took part in NN’s Newcastle Open Day in May.

Moorfields asks big questions

Moorfields Eye Hospital in London is looking for answers to two of the big questions in nystagmus. Firstly, what impact does nystagmus have on the developing vision of young children? And secondly, is there an optimal time for intervening with glasses or surgery?

The Moorfields project will study 30 infants with nystagmus and should be completed during 2017. This project is funded by Fight for Sight, the Giles Warman Foundation and the Nystagmus Network.

Moorfields is also benefitting from a separate £550 grant from the Nystagmus Network towards the purchase of diagnostic equipment for a new paediatric nystagmus clinic