Bristol Eye Hospital runs many successful epidemiological research programmes directed by consultant staff, Miss Cathy Williams and Mr John Sparrow. These focus on determining the quality of life, evidence base for therapies, ocular and visual development in children and pathways of improved health care delivery. This is a successful longstanding partnership with the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences.

Cathy Williams has a longstanding research interest in visual development and amblyopia. She has been involved with a population birth cohort study since 1992 and became a Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist with an interest in children with developmental problems in 2000.