Speakers

Louise Downey is a Consultant Ophthalmologist specialising in Medical Retinal diseases at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and also at Hull University Teaching Hospital. Her clinical practice demonstrates a particular interest in inherited retinal diseases and retinal vascular diseases. She has previously acted as Retinal Lead for the service in Hull for 12 years and then more recently for 2 years worked as Associate Medical Director for Ophthalmology across two neighbouring partnership NHS Trusts in the area. In 2016 she led the transition of the intravitreal service to a Treat and Extend algorithm for all anti-VEGF disease indications at one of the acute NHS Trusts and pioneered the collaboration of Allied Health care professionals in the virtual review clinic for this service. She is also currently leading the ICS-wide Task and Finish Group for cataract service optimisation. She has been invited to contribute to national consensus discussions around intravitreal treatment selection for Retinal Vascular diseases within the NHS. Whilst studying Medicine at Manchester University Miss Downey gained a BSc in Pathology which led to an interest in Molecular Medicine. This was further developed with a PhD in Molecular Genetics at Leeds University related to retinal angiogenesis, whilst undertaking Specialist Ophthalmic training on the Leeds Ophthalmology training rotation. She has acted as Principal Investigator for clinical trials relating to anti-VEGF therapies for retinal vascular diseases. M-GB-00022242 April 2025