Meet the bars council members

 Mrs. Samantha Mann has been a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital for 13 years.  Her early career was spent in South London teaching hospitals before studying for an MD into AMD. She then spent a further three years at Moorfield's.  

She is currently the Clinical Lead for the South East London DESP with over 110,000 patients. She has co-developed the OCT pathway within SELDESP and been involved setting up pathways for anti-VEGF treatment in the hospital Eye Service.  She has also been involved in the production of the video  ‘Danny's story' and research into non-attendance at Eye Screening. In addition she has been involved in research into Retinal Vein Occlusions and biomarkers for wet AMD

 Charlotte has worked in the NHS since 1999 when she joined Poole Hospital NHS Trust as a medical photographer. She was the student representative on the Institute of Medical Illustrators whilst studying for her BSc in Medical Illustration which she gained in 2006. Charlotte started working for the Dorset Diabetic Eye Screening Programme in 2004 and has worked her way up to a senior grader/slit lamp examiner. In her career she has worked as a Quality Assurance Advisor for SQAS, covering DES and AAA screening. She has also served on the DR NET steering group where she was involved in developing an international online learning course about how to set up a DR screening programme, which has won several awards.  having been a member of BARS council since 2018 and becoming co-Chair in 2021 Charlotte is passionate about sharing learning and good practice with the community.    

  Zoë has served as Secretary on the BARS Council since 2016.  She is the Programme Manager for the West Sussex Diabetic Eye Screening Programme and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the council.  Zoë worked closely with fellow council members to develop the BARS Admin Certificate, which remains a highly valued resource for those working in Failsafe and Administrative teams.  She is now looking forward to reviewing the course and implementing updates to reflect recent national changes.

  Kam began his NHS journey as a retinal screener, quickly progressing to primary and secondary grader, and now also grades at OCT and ROG level. He currently works as a Senior Screener Grader at South East London DESP, 

He is also a member of the NHS England Camera Assessment Group, where they assess and approve OCT and retinal cameras used across the diabetic eye screening programmes. This role has given him valuable experience in imaging equipment standards and innovation across the sector.

As the Trade and Media Coordinator for BARS, He leads on our media presence, industry engagement, and visual content creation. He also manages our social media communications, liaises with trade partners and exhibitors, and coordinates media coverage for the annual BARS conference, He also serves as the official photographer and videographer!

Kam is proud to be part of the BARS Council and passionate about contributing to the national screening community. His aim is to support the development of the profession, raise the profile of the work we do, and promote excellence in retinal screening and imaging.

 Emma joined the Somerset DESP team in May 2018 as a support worker after working in palliative and mental health work, she quickly took a keen interest in the role and began learning more about retinopathy and diabetic eye care. In December 2020, she was fortunate enough to be promoted and completed the health screeners diploma with the Gloucester Retinal Education Group (GREG) to become a qualified Screener/ Grader now grading primary, secondary, primary DS and arbitration. Emma has also completed the OCT in digital Surveillance course and Advanced Grading course also through GREG, Emma's interests lie in OCT in which she feels lucky to be a part of a team who have spearheaded the way for OCT involvement in DESP.  

As someone who enjoys arts and painting in their spare time, Emma understands how important a person's sight is to them and the fear that can surround such matters, which makes her proud to be working in a job that can prevent sight loss to people of all ages. Emma's work as Webmaster for BARS involves running the website, designing this new website, dealing with membership and sending the global correspondence. 

 Having graduated from Birmingham City University in 2010 with a degree in Visual Communication, Stacey jumped straight into a role as a Screener/Grader for the Birmingham, Solihull & Black Country DESP in which she remained for 10 years. During her time working within the screening programme, she was a member of the Grader College for several years and a part of the promotion group for the DESP, which meant she designed and created a lot of the promotional and educational material and leaflets.

Stacey now works as a Remote Grader for NEC and is extremely happy to continue her design work within the BARS organisation. Stacey collates, designs and works her magic with making the BARS chronicle look stylish and professional and also assisted in the designing of this new website.

 In January 2021 Milena started her role as a Retinal Screener in Jersey. She was previously a HCS in a care home and therefore has undertaken significant CPD since moving: including a university certificate in imaging for diabetic eye screening , BARS administration course and anatomy of the eye. She has also been fortunate enough to attend, online, the National diabetic eye screening conference in 2021 and also previous BARS conferences.

Milena is bilingual in English and Polish and is currently learning Portuguese with the aim to offer screening in 3 languages. She is always looking for opportunities to learn and improve, not only herself, but also her screening programme.

Ali Askari holds a BA (Hons) in Business Management and a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) with a specialization in “Executive Health Management and Hospital Leadership”. He is a Prince2-certified project manager with over 15 years of programme and project management experience outside the NHS, where he gained strong business acumen and a deep understanding of organizational dynamics. Ali joined the NHS 15 years ago, starting as General Manager for commissioning and design at the hospital. For the past 14 years, he has served as the North Central London (NCL) Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) Programme Manager, a service delivered by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, now part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Amongst other operational roles, Ali managed the ophthalmology department and served as “silver command” and “on-call manager” at the Hospital. Ali has been a Screening Professional Clinical Advisor (SPCA) for NHS England and the Screening Quality Assurance Service (SQAS) for nine years, participating in over 14 External Quality Assurance (EQA) visits. Ali is passionate about improving healthcare efficiency and delivering high-quality outcomes. He has actively contributed to the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) and has participated in the British Association of Retinal Screening (BARS) conferences for 13 years.

Marzena joined South East London Diabetic Eye Screening in June 2023 as a Primary Care and Stakeholder Engagement Manager. This role has enabled her to apply her extensive patient advocacy experience gained during a decade-long career with Healthwatch, where she supported people to have their voices heard and taken into account to provide informed improvements in NHS and social care. At Healthwatch she progressed from Engagement Officer to Operations Manager, strengthening her organisational and leadership skills. Marzena's passion lies in bringing a patient-centred perspective to healthcare, particularly within SEL DESP, and addressing health inequalities experienced by underserved communities. Skilled in organisational leadership, and stakeholder and patient engagement, she strives to improve healthcare access for all.

With an eye for detail (pun intended) and a vision for better healthcare, Ananditha has always been passionate about both clinical care and the bigger picture of healthcare management. She holds an undergraduate degree in Optometry, and after working as a clinical Optometrist in India for about a year, decided to pursue a Master’s in Healthcare Management to deepen her understanding of healthcare systems. Currently, she's a trainee Screener-Grader, having started in September 2024 for the South East London Program.

Every day, she sees first-hand the impact of diabetic eye screening in preserving vision, and Is excited to be part of a field where small details make a big difference. Now, she can't wait to contribute her growing experience in retinal screening and continue to bring her enthusiasm for learning and making things happen to the BARS team.

Before becoming involved with DESP in 2005 when Karen joined County Durham and Darlington Screening programme as a Screener/Grader, she worked  as Medical Laboratory Assistant in Histology where she used to do gross specimen photography and was about to embark on her Foundation Degree in Bio-Medical Science when a colleague told her about the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme that was starting in the area and how much she would enjoy it, it involved patients, photography and pathology - what wasn't there to like!  Karen quickly became very interested in how the pathway and programme worked (or didn't in the early days) and became the Failsafe Officer for Darlington within a couple of years of the programme starting.  After having her second child in 2009, she left screening for a period of 2 years but missed it so applied for a job with South Tees DESP as a Screener/Grader and feels lucky to be back doing what she loves.

Simon has worked for the NHS since 2005 where he started as a screener/ grader at the North Tees DESP. In 2009 he moved to South Tees as a senior grader and made his way up to Programme Manager. He completed all 9 units of the old City & Guilds in screening qualification and assessed units for staff within his team. He has also been a DES EQA peer reviewer for over 10 years and is a member of the DES camera testing group. A self-confessed geek who loves the facts and figures. His programme has used OCT within DS (was OPDR) since 2012 so is very interested to see what differences will appear with the new DS with OCT pathway. Simon is passionate about screening and is always looking for ways to improve patient care.

Lisa's Diabetic Eye journey started in March 2021 when she joined the HIOW DESP, and she has not looked back!  Since joining DESP she has gained her diploma as a Diabetic Eye Screener / Grader in January 2023, followed by arbitration in 2024 and Is currently working towards ROG status. In October 2024 she also gained her Assessor  Vocational Diploma.  Lisa absolutely loves her job and patient care is always at the heart of what she does on a daily basis, whether screening, training or assessing patient care is paramount.

She also worked for a well know weight loss company for around 5 years and within this role got to work with local authorities to help with the National Pre Diabetic Weight loss Program. Working with education and weight management she has gained many transferable skills.