What draws someone to a career in eye care? For the twelve writers in our new essay collection, the answer often starts close to home.
The Future Experts in Eyecare brings together the highly commended entries to the 2026 Future of Eye Care Competition, run by Friends of Moorfields and the NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre. The writers include school pupils, optometry and medical students, and junior doctors. Each one tells the story of their own journey into eye care.
Many of the writers have spent time at Moorfields, shadowing clinicians, volunteering or holding patients’ hands during surgery with Friends of Moorfields. Whilst the clinical skills of the Moorfields team impressed them, what stayed with them most was how our staff communicate with our patients, whether it’s to reassure, educate or just listen to concerns and fears.
Looking ahead
The writers are hopeful, offering their predictions for the future of eye care including:
Earlier detection: using AI and retinal imaging to find disease before it causes lasting damage
Reaching more people: bringing screening to communities that struggle to get specialist care
Seeing the whole person: recognising that the eye can show early signs of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes
New treatments: including gene therapy for inherited eye conditions
What matters to patients: judging success by what people can do in their daily lives, not just by test results
Above all, they agree that technology will change how we care for eyes, but eye care must always be about people.
Read the essays by downloading The Future Experts in Eye care (PDF)