Training, Clinical Roles, Research & Memberships
Current Clinical Position
Professor Taylor was appointed as a consultant at Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) in December 2011. He set up the intravitreal injection service at RSCH for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusion and diabetic maculopathy, and was nominated for a Macular Society Award for this in 2012. His clinical interests include uveitis and retinal disease, as well as the management of cataract and glaucoma. He currently runs a weekly uveitis clinic at the Royal Surrey County Hospital which takes regional referrals, as well as weekly general/medical retina clinics and operating lists for cataract and glaucoma surgery. He was appointed joint Clinical Director of the ophthalmology department in 2015.
Professor Taylor performs small-incision cataract surgery, normally under 'no-injection' topical anaesthesia, but also under local anaesthesia, sedation or general anaesthesia if required. He is experienced in the use of multifocal and toric lenses, and in techniques for the correction of astigmatism.
Current Research Role
Professor Taylor's clinical research programme was recognised with a career development fellowship from the UK National Institute of Health Research in 2012. He has since been a principal investigator on more than twenty clinical trials which have all aimed to provide his patients with access to the latest treatments as well as improving outcomes in ophthalmic disease. He has presented the results of international multicentre clinical trials at international meetings, has been the recipient of over £1m in research funding and has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Professor Taylor is on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Hospital Medicine, BMC Ophthalmology, PLoS One, the Open Ophthalmology Journal and Case Reports in Ophthalmology. He has reviewed papers for over 20 journals over the last five years, including ophthalmology, science and general medical journals.
Professor Taylor continues to lead ophthalmic research at the Royal Surrey, and also served as the Clinical Director of Research & Development for the Trust from 2014 to 2017. He was appointed to the position of Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Surrey in 2015.
Undergraduate Education
Professor Taylor read medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, obtaining a first class BA(Hons) in 1995. He was an undergraduate and clinical scholar, and won the Ann Pearson Prize for Medicine in 1995 as well as several other prizes and awards. His undergraduate research into the effects of low-dose anaesthesia on contrast sensitivity and saccadic eye movements was subsequently published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia and Anaesthesia. He was awarded his MB BChir in 1997 and his MA in 2001.
Basic Surgical Training
Professor Taylor was an anatomy demonstrator and college supervisor at the University of Cambridge before undertaking basic surgical training at St. James's Hospital, Leeds. He then entered Ophthalmology training in the South-West Thames region, before being appointed as a Senior House Office at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2002.
Higher Surgical Training
Professor Taylor was appointed to the North Thames Training Rotation in 2003 and underwent training in all the major subspecialties at Moorfields Eye Hospital between 2003 and 2006. He was then awarded a Clinical Research Training Fellowship by the Medical Research Council in 2006 and underwent three years of combined clinical and basic sciences research at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College and the Hammersmith Hospital (now part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust), which culminated in the awards of PhD and DipIC.
During this time, he developed expertise in the management of inflammatory and autoimmune eye disease, and was instrumental in the development of the multisciplinary vasculitis clinic at the Hammersmith Hospital. He pioneered the use of systemic anti-B-cell therapy in ocular inflammation as well as pursuing novel intraocular therapies such as methotrexate and sustained-release steroid implants for other retinal diseases.
Professor Taylor was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 2008 and returned to Moorfields in 2009 as a National Institute of Health Research clinical lecturer specialising in retinal disease. During this time, he completed fellowships with Prof. C. Stephen Foster of Harvard Medical School at the Massachussetts Eye Research and Surgery Institution (MERSI) and with Prof. Sue Lightman of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He obtained his CCT and was entered onto the Specialist Register in September 2011.
Education & Training
Professor Taylor is involved in both clinical and research training and holds a Masters degree in medical education. He has supervised students for the degrees of MD(Res) and PhD. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and of the Academy of Medical Educators.
Memberships & Fellowships of Societies
- Fellow, Royal College of Ophthalmologists
- Fellow, Royal Society of Biology
- Fellow, Academy of Medical Educators
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- Member, American Uveitis Society
- Member, British Society of Immunology