Medical research is really important for improving people’s lives in lots of different ways. But before we can do the research on the things that help most, like new treatments, a lot of background work needs to be done that most people don’t see. It might not seem very exciting, but it is necessary before we can do the more exciting studies. We are looking for volunteers, to help us get to the parts of research that help you! Often what we need from you is totally non-invasive, and can be good fun. We won’t run any experiments or take any scans without permission, don’t worry.

For example, here are some things you could do right now from home to help us get to the stages of research that are most exciting.

We need volunteers to fill out the following questionnaires: 

 

1. For females, any females:  

We need females who have normal vision (for our control group) to fill in our vision and lifestyle questionnaire for healthy controls. 

This questionnaire is to help us with a study on female carriers of X-linked inherited retinal diseases, like retinitis pigmentosa and choroideremia. 

The carriers of these conditions will be the mothers, sisters, and/or daughters of people with X-linked conditions, so if someone genetically related to you has one of those conditions, please fill out this survey instead: vision and lifestyle questionnaire for female carriers of X-linked inherited retinal diseases. 

 

2. To look at how vision and hearing interact, especially when one of these senses is becoming impaired. 

We are recruiting adults with sensory loss to investigate experiences of healthcare appointments and services since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If you have a vision and/or hearing impairment, we would appreciate your help by completing our accessibility of healthcare services for adults with sensory impairment survey.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Please keep a look out for more opportunities to get involved on our website. Please get involved in research even if you can’t see how it is helping you personally right now.

Happy World Sight Day 2022!

Dr Jasleen Jolly, Vision and Eye Research Institute, Cambridge.