{"id":6839,"date":"2024-11-22T11:07:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/?p=6839"},"modified":"2024-11-22T11:07:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:07:35","slug":"st-andrews-experts-call-for-decolonisation-of-infant-eye-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/st-andrews-experts-call-for-decolonisation-of-infant-eye-test\/","title":{"rendered":"St Andrews experts call for \u2018decolonisation\u2019 of infant eye test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fundal Reflex Test - University of St Andrews\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OitBB_9wKk0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Dr Blaikie explains why he and his co-authors are calling for the &#8216;red reflex&#8217; newborn eye test to be renamed.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Researchers from the University of St\u00a0Andrews School of Medicine are calling for the renaming of eye examination terminology to help promote racial equality in healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018red\u2019 reflex test is a crucial eye examination performed in newborns to detect sight-threatening conditions. It involves shining a light into the infant\u2019s eyes to observe the reflection from the retina, which is commonly expected to be red in colour.<\/p>\n<p>However, this expectation is problematic, as it is based on a Eurocentric perspective that assumes a \u2018normal\u2019 reflex should be red \u2014 a reflection more typical in lighter-skinned individuals.<\/p>\n<p>The call for a name change is included in a pivotal report in<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41433-024-03433-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Eye Nature<\/em><\/a> , co-authored by consultant ophthalmologist in the NHS Fife and Senior Lecturer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/medicine\/people\/ab312\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Andrew Blaikie<\/a>, 2022 St Andrews BSc (Hons) Medicine graduate Cieren Kelly, and Honorary Research Fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/medicine\/people\/ma265\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr Martin Anderson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The report highlights that in those with darker skin tones the reflex can present in different colours, such as yellow, orange, or less bright hues, leading to misinterpretation, unnecessary referrals, and perpetuating racial biases in healthcare.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.st-andrews.ac.uk\/archive\/st-andrews-experts-call-for-decolonisation-of-infant-eye-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full press release<\/a> on the University of St Andrews news site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Blaikie explains why he and his co-authors are calling for the &#8216;red reflex&#8217; newborn eye test to be renamed.\u00a0 Researchers from the University of St\u00a0Andrews School of Medicine are calling for the renaming of eye examination terminology to help promote racial equality in healthcare. The \u2018red\u2019 reflex test is a crucial eye examination performed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5585,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1280,8,9,10],"tags":[98,293,1361,1281,594,606,823],"class_list":["post-6839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arclight","category-inclusion","category-igh","category-mackenzie","category-news","tag-arclight","tag-dr-andrew-blaikie","tag-dr-martin-anderson","tag-edi","tag-igh","tag-infection-and-global-health-division","tag-ophthalmology"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-28 10:01:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}