Macular Society partners with UK’s largest health research programme

The Macular Society is proud to announce a new partnership with Our Future Health, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at revolutionising research into health conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Our Future Health is working in partnership with the NHS, charities and businesses to revolutionise the way we fight disease. The organisation aims to recruit five million volunteers across the UK to help researchers find new ways to prevent, detect and treat many common conditions. 

The health information, from a diverse range of people, could help researchers detect diseases before symptoms start to show.

The Macular Society is the latest leading health research charity to partner with Our Future Health. The partnership will help raise the profile of eye disease, as well as accelerate progress being made in research.

Paving the way for significant advancements in research

Dr Peter Bloomfield, director of research at the Macular Society, said: “Our Future Health's approach will help provide invaluable insights into AMD. Collecting data in this way will enable discovery on a scale, which to date hasn’t been possible. Through this approach, researchers will be able to gain a better understanding of eye health and crucially how it may associate with other conditions and underlying genotypes. This paves the way for significant advancements in research and over the long term will lead to a new generation of treatments.

"We’re delighted to be part of this collaborative research effort. We remain dedicated to beating macular disease and by partnering with Our Future Health, we hope to further establish ophthalmic research as a promising area for discovery. This will bring us closer to a future where AMD no longer poses a threat to the sight here in the UK or globally.”

Dr Raghib Ali, CEO and chief medical officer of Our Future Health, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with the Macular Society as an affiliate charity of Our Future Health. Their commitment to tackling macular disease and their expertise in sight loss research provides an exciting opportunity to collaborate to make discoveries that can prevent sight loss and help those affected by it.”

So far more than 1.3m people have signed up to Our Future Health.