Professor Bertil Damato

Professional statement

Professor Bertil Damato is an internationally-esteemed consultant ophthalmologist based in central London. He provides expert, industry-leading treatment in adult ocular oncology (eye tumours) including ocular naevi, ocular melanoma and ocular carcinoma alongside ocular metastasis and conjunctival melanosis. He practices privately at the London Claremont Clinic and Moorfields Private Eye Hospital in central London. He is an NHS consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, University of Oxford. At the moment, Professor Damato is only seeing patients via video consultation.
   
Professor Damato is responsible for various innovations in modern ophthalmology. Among others, he most recently developed 'MOLES'. This is a simple algorithm that distinguishes benign naevi (moles) from malignant melanomas at the back of the eye. Other progressive developments he has been at the forefront of, like proton beam radiotherapy of iris melanoma and survival prognostication in uveal melanoma are now widely practised. 

Professor Damato is a highly-decorated professional with various awards and official recognition from the NHS and ophthalmology organisations around the world. As well as exercising his impressive specialist knowledge in his practice, he also has expertise in counselling and supporting patients with eye cancer, having written a thesis on the subject.

Professor Damato received his undergraduate education at the University of Malta's School of Medicine, his postgraduate training in Glasgow, specialising in ophthalmology and ocular oncology, and completed his PhD in 1987.

In 1993, he founded the ocular oncology service at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which has become internationally recognised as a centre of excellence. In 2013, he was invited to lead the ocular oncology service at the University of California San Francisco hospital as Professor of Ophthalmology and Radiation Oncology. 

Upon returning to the UK in 2018, Professor Damato was appointed Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, University of Oxford, founding the ocular oncology service at Oxford Eye Hospital. He also joined the ocular oncology team at Moorfields Eye Hospital at that time. 

For many years, Professor Damato has lectured extensively around the world (virtually at present), usually as an invited speaker. He is an active member of various medical associations including the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, the International Society of Ocular Oncology and the European Ophthalmic Oncology Group. He has served as president of the latter two as well as the European Vision and Eye Research Association. Furthermore, he is an honorary fellow of the Ophthalmological Society of Alberta, Canada, and the College of Optometrists, UK.

He has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals, 100 textbook chapters, and had authored/co-authored or edited several ocular oncology textbooks. Professor Damato has received numerous awards, including the Bjerrum Medal (Denmark), Cohen Medal (South Africa), Shields Award (Hong Kong), Watson Medal (UK), Ashton Medal (UK), Rhett Buckler Award (USA), Secretariat Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology (USA), and others. 

Revered by colleagues and members alike, Professor Damato celebrates his impressive career achievements at Liverpool Oncology Centre with the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group (LOORG).