Radhika Rampat

Radhika Rampat is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, Associate academic director of the Refractive Surgery Alliance (RSA) global Fellowship network, and Chair of the American European Congress of Ophthalmic Surgery (AECOS) Green Working Group

Born in India and moving over to the UK when she was 12 years old, Radhika Rampat’s parents always instilled in her the value of taking every opportunity she was given and putting in 100 percent effort. In Rampat’s case, this approach appears to have paid dividends already.

After pursuing a medical school internship in Mexico, Rampat undertook extended study in the US, working under the auspices of Gislin Dagnelie at the Wilmer Eye Institute. A prestigious Academic Foundation Program (AFP) place followed, where Rampat enjoyed the chance to work alongside Gary Rubin at the Institute of Ophthalmology. She then joined the North Thames London deanery training program, where she rotated through some incredible London hospitals – Royal Free, Western Eye, and Moorfields – culminating in a key turning point for Rampat’s career when she (and her cardiologist husband, Rajiv Rampat) met Damien Gatinel, Head of the Anterior and Refractive Surgery Department of The Rothschild Foundation in Paris.

This serendipitous encounter led Rampat to work as Gatinel’s research fellow for a year, which set her career on another trajectory. “Professor Gatinel really gave me that bug of being passionate about research and about refractive surgery,” she says. “He has set up a department that is really quite enviable; he has a group of colleagues who are very invested in all the work they do and they collaborate all the time.” Following Paris, Rampat did two more years of corneal fellowships at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. She gained invaluable experience as the first female consultant at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead for a year, before moving to The Royal Free Hospital, where she currently serves as consultant ophthalmic surgeon.

Digital healthcare and sustainability have been two topics of enduring interest throughout Rampat’s career. And weaving her interest in the digital realm into her research, she has created algorithms for an app – MicroGuide – that details the Emergency Cornea Guidelines of Moorfields Eye Hospital. “The app is still being used by registrars in the eye casualty there as a reference point for any corneal emergencies, which is incredible.” She also leads the digital strategy within the ophthalmology unit at the Royal Free, aiming to get more patients involved in virtual consultations and looking at better opportunities to discharge some patients earlier. 

Looking ahead, Rampat would like to establish herself in London, and she has a keen interest in promoting women in ophthalmology and on the podiums. “I’d like to show that you can have a successful career as well as having a family life. Nothing should be able to stop you from doing that, and you don’t have to step on anybody else to move up the career ladder.”

“Radhika is someone who is not afraid to get her hands dirty and to tackle the big problems facing ophthalmology: training for refractive surgeons, the digital changes coming our way including machine learning and AI, and then, critically, sustainability,” says The Ophthalmologist’s three-time Power Lister, Arthur B. Cummings. “She is an asset to ophthalmology and to moving our field forward across many fronts.”

^{Credit: Photo supplied by Pamela Katz Photography @pkheadshots}