IDEA study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Improving Diagnostic Eye Assessments for children

  • IRAS ID

    336166

  • Contact name

    Oliver R Marmoy

  • Contact email

    o.marmoy@nhs.net

  • Sponsor organisation

    Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    10 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    The clinical ophthalmic and vision science (OVS) unit at Great Ormond Street (GOSH) provides unique specialist services to children to support the diagnosis, monitoring and characterisation of diseases affecting the eye. This laboratory has demonstrated a long history of innovative approaches for testing children, much of which has been based upon modified approaches allowing for testing in alert and awake children. These approaches are often based on exploitation of the basic physiology within the visual system, so that responses can be optimised and/or biased, without the need for the high demands or compliance required for adult testing.

    Accordingly, GOSH is an international leader for its works in modified protocols in performing the Electroretinogram, including modified approaches for performing detailed retinal imaging through oral fluorescein dyes. The ability to perform these specialist techniques in alert and awake children, without the need for anaesthetic or sedation, overall improves patient experience and potentially the long-term effects on neurocognitive development.

    This project aims to support an ongoing programme of study to support continued modification of test techniques and/or ability to better characterising abnormal visual function of paediatric OVS data. The objectives to meet this project aim are three fold; (1) perform experimental study of OVS tests in healthy staff participants, (2) perform tests as an extension of standard care in patients seen at the OVS unit at GOSH, (3) retrospective collation of data for natural history and phenotyping studies.

    These aims unify to provide us to experiment with optimal stimuli to apply in children (Section A), observe how successful, valid and clinically useful they may be (Section B) and overall see how existing and future data obtained from OVS clinical tests may relate with clinical features or diagnosis (Section C).

  • REC name

    South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    25/SC/0035

  • Date of REC Opinion

    12 Feb 2025

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion