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PhD studentship Bart’s and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry Queen Mary, University of London Estimating visual outcomes in ophthalmic epidemiology by developing statistical methodology for visual field data Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine Supervisor: Dr A R Rudnicka Co-Supervisor: Professor D Ashby A graduate in mathematics or statistics with at least an upper second class honours degree or a lower second class honours degree with a masters in statistics or medical statistics is required for this project based at the School’s West Smithfield campus in the city of London. In Britain 350,000 people are registered blind or partially sighted and a further 350,000 are thought to have significant visual impairment (visual acuity < 6/18). Eye diseases that cause severe visual impairment are common - in people over 65 in Britain about 3% have glaucoma, 3% macular degeneration, 1% diabetic retinopathy. This problem can be expected to increase with the ageing population. Ophthalmic epidemiology is a relatively new and expanding field, and a number of methods are now under investigation for treating or preventing these common eye diseases. They share a major problem in quantifying response to treatment. Eye diseases are usually slowly progressive: serious visual impairment and blindness develop over a decade or more so they are not suitable endpoints in a study. Accurate short term markers of visual loss are needed in randomised trials and epidemiological studies and the two most common, the Snellen chart and the visual field test, have limitations. Snellen acuity only gives a measure of central vision. The visual field test gives a more comprehensive (detailed) measure of visual function with around 70 locations tested in the field of vision of each eye, but the wealth of data that is generated is not well utilised at present. Data from all points tested is often summarised as an overall average loss in sensitivity. However, this fails to quantify the spatial pattern of visual loss caused by eye diseases, such as enlargement of specific areas within the field where vision has been lost. Statistical methods for quantifying visual function are needed. The PhD student will need to develop statistical spatial methods using Bayesian conditional independence modelling to quantify the variations in visual function between eyes and across individuals. For an informal discussion, please contact the lead project supervisor: Dr Alicja R Rudnicka Tel: 020 7 882 6286 Email: [log in to unmask] This studentship is funded by the Special Trustees of the Royal London & St Bartholomew’s Hospitals and comes with a tax free stipend of £13000.00 per annum. Home/EU tuition fees will be paid by the Special Trustees of the Royal London & St Bartholomew’s Hospitals. Non EU applicants will have to fund the difference between home and overseas tuition fees themselves, approximately £8000.00 per annum for a minimum of three years. Closing date for applications is 30th July 2004.