About Us
Eye-Opening-Education was co-founded by Ms. Evgenia (Jen) Anikina & Ms. Stacey Strong in order to highlight awareness of topics that were not covered throughout specialist training.
Jen & Stacey started ophthalmology training together in 2009 and are now both successful consultants in their respective sub-specialist fields, both in the NHS and private practice.
Both women noticed significant gaps in the specialist syllabus that had not prepared them for certain aspects of consultant life, such as: understanding job planning, how to get approval to use a new drug in your department, how to get into private practice, indemnity options, setting up a new service or service-level agreement (SLA), serious incident panel presentation, performance management, alternative career options, tips for maintaining work-life balance, etc.
Jen & Stacey specifically designed their course, entitled: "What you were not taught in training" in a way that is transferable across various different sub-specialties. The first in the series took place in December 2025, aimed at Ophthalmologists and was a huge success. They are now rolling out for ENT and anaesthetics in Autumn 2026.
They hope you will find these courses extremely interesting and insightful.
Mr. Sid Nagala
Mr Sid Nagala is an ENT Consultant Head and Neck, Thyroid and Parathyroid surgeon who qualified from St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London in 2003 and was appointed to his consultant post at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust in 2019.
He has specialist interests in minimally invasive thyroid and parathyroid surgery treatments including transoral scarless surgery. He was one of the surgeons to first perform this novel technique in the UK. Sid’s wider clinical interests include benign head and neck surgery, general adult and paediatric ENT.
Alongside his clinical interests, Sid is the ENT research lead at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and the current NIHR ENT lead for the South Central region. He actively engages in national NIHR trials, such as RABBIT. He collaborates with the University of Reading with research interests including the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare specifically in patients with thyroid nodules and cancer. Sid has previously completed a translational PhD evaluating imaging biomarkers in thyroid tumours at the University of Cambridge.
Sid has served on the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons (BAETS) Executive committee as the Educational Lead and is the current non-tertiary lead. He regularly is an invited speaker at national and international courses and conferences in relation to thyroid and parathyroid surgery.