David Spalton
The Power List 2020 – Power List
Former Professor of Ophthalmology at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK
Piece of advice to your younger self?
Video your own surgery and watch it. It can be painful, but you learn a lot and realize how much better you can be. Also visit exceptional surgeons, watch their surgery and learn new techniques.
The most unexpected moment of your career?
Apart from the surprise of being nominated for the Power List, undoubtedly the highlight of my professional career was my ESCRS Presidency. It is very much a “hands on” executive position. You meet the world leaders in cataract and refractive surgery, meet truly brilliant minds, see wonderful surgery, and have a unique opportunity to influence the Society’s work, as well as its educational, teaching and training programs. It was a most interesting, rewarding and enjoyable experience.
I was exceptionally lucky to be working on posterior capsule opacification at the time Alcon brought out Acrysof IOLs. Working with Jimmy Boyce in the Physics Department at King's College, London, we developed an image analysis technique based on military software that could objectively quantify PCO. Fortuitously, we hit the crest of the wave and this allowed us to do fundamental studies on IOL design. It opened doors to industry and the opportunity to meet the materials scientists, engineers and optical physicists behind IOL research, which gave new perspective and insight to my clinical work.
