CooperVision Summit: Researchers of the future

Finalists – Ashleigh Wood

Project – Contemporary management of meibomian gland dysfunction

Supervisor – Dr Katharine Evans and Dr Ashley Wood

This presentation used a real life case example of a patient (Dr Richard Earlam, a familiar face to readers who qualified from Cardiff University – figure 1) who had been diagnosed with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) back in 2011 and remained symptomatic.

Student Ashleigh Wood began with an accepted definition of MGD – ‘A chronic, diffuse abnormality of the meibomian glands characterised by terminal duct obstruction and quantitative and qualitative changes in the glandular secretion resulting in an altered tear film, clinical signs of inflammation, ocular irritation and eye diseases.’¹