Orthoptist Dr Claire Howard has recently been appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport to Chair the DVLA Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Visual Disorders. She is the first non-medic to chair a DVLA medical panel.
Claire is a stroke specialist orthoptist working in the stroke team at the Manchester Centre for Clinical neurosciences, a clinical research fellow for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and an honorary research fellow at Universities of Liverpool and Manchester.
She is a specialist in the field of brain-injury related visual impairment, particularly stroke-related visual field loss, which often affect a patient’s ability to drive. She has supported many patients to return to driving following a stroke-related visual impairment.
Claire said: ” It is an absolute honour to be appointed into this role. My aim is to bring growing evidence to the forefront and ensure that all decisions made by DVLA regarding vision and driving are evidence based and in the best interests of all drivers.”
