Aishah Baig is an orthoptist working at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust and currently studying for a PhD in Rehabilitation and Healthcare Research at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on vision screening in older adults who attend hospital following a fall and is funded by the Vivensa Foundation.
Caring for older people with complex needs is what drew me to geriatrics, particularly the opportunity to improve independence and quality of life.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Orthoptics at the University of Sheffield in 2014. I worked as an Orthoptist at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust until 2017, and I am now an Advanced Orthoptist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. My role involves the assessment and management of disorders of eye movement and double vision in older people, arising from worsening childhood squints or conditions such as diabetes and stroke.
While working clinically, I completed a distance learning Master’s degree in Vision and Strabismus at the University of Sheffield in 2020, which strengthened my understanding of research methods and sparked a growing interest in clinical academia.
My current role in Nottingham includes vision screening for older people admitted with fall-related hip fractures. This work directly exposed me to the scale and impact of falls in older adults and highlighted the importance of vision as a modifiable risk factor.
In 2022, I was awarded a Chief AHP Fellowship, which provided structured research and project experience for aspiring clinical academics. Through this, I completed a quality improvement project on vision screening in older people who have fallen. This introduced me to the wider multidisciplinary work in falls prevention, as well as global initiatives aimed at reducing falls and fractures.
The findings from this project highlighted a clear need for further research into how vision screening can be effectively implemented in older adults following a fall. It also strengthened my motivation to contribute orthoptic expertise to falls prevention and to improving outcomes for older people.
Mentorship from the fellowship supported me to undertake a National Institute for Health and Care Research Pre-Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) in 2023. This provided protected time and training to develop my academic skills, build research networks, and prepare a competitive PhD application focused on vision screening in falls.
Following this, I was awarded a doctoral fellowship with the Vivensa Foundation. My research focuses on the implementation of vision screening for older adults attending hospital after a fall. I am currently in my second year, during which we have explored the views and experiences of both healthcare professionals and older people regarding vision screening in this context.
The British Geriatrics Society has played an important role in my development by providing opportunities to connect with other professionals with shared interests, disseminate research findings, and understand how my work fits within the wider landscape of geriatric care and research.
My research aims to improve the lives of older people by identifying and managing visual impairment that may contribute to the risk of falling and its potentially serious consequences for patients, families, and health and social care services.
I find it extremely rewarding to support people to age well and continue participating in life in the way they choose. Geriatrics offers the opportunity to improve care for older people through tackling complex, person-centred challenges that affect underserved populations.
