A world-leading eye surgeon and a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine have attained professorships from University College London (UCL).

Saurabh Jain has been appointed the first ever professor of ophthalmology at the Royal Free London (RFL) and Mike Spiro has been named as a professor of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.

Saurabh has a special interest in adult strabismus (a condition where eyes don’t properly align with each other when looking at an object), paediatric ophthalmology and cataract surgery.

Saurabh, who has worked at the RFL for 15 years, is a senior international examiner and sits on a number of international committees related to strabismus. He runs training courses, has mentored several residents and fellows over the years and regularly presents his research findings worldwide.

Saurabh said: “I’m delighted to have attained this professorship from UCL. It’s a validation of the high level of teaching our ophthalmology team provide to our medical students and for our active observership programme. This includes improving access to work experience for students from deprived areas and schools to improve access to the ophthalmology profession.

"With so few places available at medical school I feel it is incredibly important to champion entry into our profession from all walks of life. This is something I feel passionately about.”

He added: “I also think our research is of a very high quality. For me the key to this is a focus on patient reported outcome measures. This patient-centred approach means we are always asking the patient what the impact of any intervention or surgery has been on their life. That should determine where we direct future research.”

Rohit Jolly, clinical lead for ophthalmology at the RFL, said: “I would like to congratulate Saurabh on this brilliant achievement. This shows that we have one of the country’s leading ophthalmology services, delivering the very best possible outcomes for our patients and training the next generation of outstanding eyecare doctors.

"Saurabh has always led the way in terms of setting high standards for clinical care, research and training and many of us, me included, are a result of his commitment to the above. We are very lucky and proud to have him within our department."

Mike Spiro, has been appointed a professor of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. Mike has worked as an RFL consultant for the past nine years focusing his research to streamline perioperative care and recovery after liver transplantation.

Mike was a driving force behind the establishment of the Liver Critical Care Unit and he led, alongside Mr Dimitri Raptis and Professor Joerg Pollok, the eras4olt.org initiative with the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) to produce the world's first comprehensive, evidence based enhanced recovery pathway for liver transplantation.

Mike is the co-lead of the Royal Free Perioperative Research Group and vice chair of the ILTS anaesthesia and critical care committee. He is also workstream lead at NHS Blood and Transplantation to establish a national enhanced recovery pathway for liver transplant recipients across all seven UK centres. In addition Mike is director of the NIHR funded HealthTech Research Centre for Sustainable Innovation.

He said: "I am proud of all that we have achieved in the past eight years, that has established the Royal Free London, through evidence based perioperative research and innovation, as national and international leaders in the field of enhanced recovery after liver transplantation.

"The credit for this has to go to the entire multidisciplinary team who have enabled such progress to be made to transform patient care in a relatively short period of time." 

Sandi Wylie, divisional clinical director for anaesthetics, intensive care and theatres, said: “I would like to congratulate Mike on behalf of the division for his well-deserved professorship. We are all extremely proud to have such a brilliant visionary within our perioperative team.

"Mike's pioneering development of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway for liver transplantation is forging worldwide advances for these patients and has been recognised in leading international journals. In addition Mike's inclusive and team approach is reflected in true multi-professional involvement throughout his research and other achievements.” 

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