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Dr Aeesha Malik

Clinical Assistant Professor

United Kingdom

Dr Aeesha Malik is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmic Surgeon working at LSHTM as part of the International Centre of Eye Health. Her expertise is in improving child eye health globally, and particularly on integrating eye care into child health policies and programmes.

She graduated from Edinburgh University and completed medical postgraduate training at Barts and the London before working at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and completing the DTM&H at LSHTM.

She completed her CCT in Ophthalmology and her Fellowship training in Paediatric Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to become a Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmic Surgeon. During this period she also completed the Masters in Public Health at LSHTM, and then worked as a Clinical Advisor at the UK Department of Health on national eye health policy, also working with Dfid and WHO on global health policies.

She began working at the International Centre of Eye Health at LSHTM in 2017, initially leading a network to improve care for Retinopathy of Prematurity in Africa and Asia. She completed her PhD in integrating eye health into child health policies and programmes, using Tanzania as a case study.

She advises on setting up and improving child eye health programmes and systems and ROP programmes. Over the last 20 years she has undertaken regular periods of clinical work abroad and training healthcare professionals working with various NGOs and academic institutions in Africa, Asia and South America.

Her current roles are as a Trustee of the Fred Hollows Foundation (UK), Faculty member of Masroor Eye Institute Burkina Faso, Faculty member of the Chinese Academy of Eye Health in paediatric ophthalmology and advisor to Humanity First "Gift of Sight" programmes.

Affiliations

Department of Clinical Research
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Teaching

Aeesha is the module organiser of the child eye health module in the MSc Public Health for Eye Care and supervises MSc students research projects. She regular teaches on her module, on the DTM&H and conducts external teaching lectures on a number of courses in the UK and abroad.

Research

Aeesha's main area of expertise is integrating eye care into child health systems and policies. Her research focusses on primary eye care for children, using new technologies to screen for eye diseases including telemedicine and AI, health policy change and retinopathy of prematurity.

A recent project in Tanzania developed an eye health module to be included in the WHO/UNICEF Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMNCI) programme, working with the government. This went on to to be included into national policy which she analysed in a health policy study. She is now working to scale up this approach using a health system and policy model encompassing health economic evaluation.

She led a Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) network, funded by the Diamond Jubilee Trust, which strengthed ROP services in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She is now leading Phase 2 of the ROP NET with a much wider global membership of countries and collaborations to improve care for ROP.

Country
Tanzania
Nepal
Kenya
Ghana
Nigeria
India

Selected Publications

Improved screening of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP): development of a target product profile (TPP) for resource-limited settings.
Kirby, RP; MALIK, AN J; Palamountain, KM; GILBERT, CE; TPP Survey and Meeting Participants Collaborator G,;
2023
BMJ open ophthalmology
Universal newborn eye screening: a systematic review of the literature and review of international guidelines.
MALIK, AN; EVANS, JR; Gupta, S; Mariotti, S; GORDON, I; Bowman, R; GILBERT, C;
2022
Journal of global health
Primary eye health care: what do young children need?
Mafwiri, M; MALIK, AN;
2022
Community Eye Health Journal
Strengthening retinopathy of prematurity screening and treatment services in Nigeria: a case study of activities, challenges and outcomes 2017-2020.
Ademola-Popoola, DS; Fajolu, IB; GILBERT, C; Olusanya, BA; Onakpoya, OH; Ezisi, CN; Musa, KO; Chan, RV P; Okeigbemen, VW; Muhammad, RC; MALIK, AN J; Adio, AO; Bodunde, OT; Rafindadi, AL; Oluleye, TS; Tongo, OO; Badmus, SA; Adebara, OV; Padhi, TR; Ezenwa, BN; Obajolowo, TS; Olokoba, LB; Olatunji, VA; Babalola, YO; Ugalahi, MO; ... Abdullahi, HS.
2021
BMJ open ophthalmology
Integrating eye health training into the primary child healthcare programme in Tanzania: a pre-training and post-training study.
MALIK, AN J; Mafwiri, M; GILBERT, C; KIM, MJ; SCHELLENBERG, J;
2020
BMJ paediatrics open
Epidemiology of ROP update - Africa is the new frontier.
GILBERT, C; MALIK, AN J; Nahar, N; Das, SK; Visser, L; Sitati, S; Ademola-Popoola, DS;
2019
Seminars in Perinatology
Optimal Resources for Children's Surgical Care: Executive Summary.
Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery,;
2019
WORLD JOURNAL OF SURGERY
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