Dr. Lara Sandri spoke with KnowTheGlow’s Megan Webber and Ruth Ngaruiya about the work that has shaped her career and the future she hopes to help create for children with retinoblastoma. Based in Johannesburg, she has built a practice focused entirely on ocular oncology and retinal surgery while providing services free of charge to government patients or those without medical insurance, recognizing the profound financial barriers to care. Her motivation comes from what she sees every week. Many children still arrive with advanced disease because parents did not recognize the early glow or because reaching a specialist took far too long. Although outcomes in private care are often stronger where patients benefit from earlier detection, the national picture remains difficult when all communities are considered.
During the conversation Dr. Sandri shared the direction of her PhD project, which aims to bring practical, non-profit artificial intelligence tools into both early recognition and clinical decision making. The project is still developing, and her priority is to design technology that can work for families using ordinary smartphones and for clinicians in busy, resource-limited settings. She hopes these tools will support earlier referrals and give doctors additional insight when planning treatment.
Alongside the research, she is helping lead a national effort to update South Africa’s retinoblastoma treatment guidelines. The current guidance has not been revised for many years, and she believes that a more unified, modern approach will help children receive consistent care no matter when they first present. Bringing colleagues from different provinces together has been an important part of this work, and she sees the new guidelines as a necessary step toward closing the survival gap in the country.
Reflecting on her path into medicine, she shares that she once considered careers like accounting or engineering, but quickly realised she was drawn to something more people-focused and hands-on. It was through recognising her desire to care for vulnerable individuals and to make a meaningful impact in their lives that medicine stood out as the perfect fit, a path that felt both purposeful and exciting from the very beginning. Surgery became a natural fit, and today her work combines clinical practice, research and national leadership to improve care for children with ocular conditions throughout the country.
Dr. Sandri emphasizes that community awareness is the foundation of early diagnosis. Advanced tools and expertise can only make a difference if families recognize The Glow and seek help in time. She sees the upcoming KnowTheGlow campaign in South Africa, running from March 15 to May 15, 2026, as an important step toward strengthening the entire pathway to care.
