Dr Rufai is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Leicester, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. He is passionate about applied health research and education. His research interest is the application of advanced ocular imaging in paediatric neuro-ophthalmological conditions, including nystagmus, craniosynostosis and paediatric intracranial hypertension.

He has over 80 journal publications and prizes, including the RCOphth Ulverscroft David Owen Prize for leading the world's first study using handheld OCT to predict future vision in infantile nystagmus (Ophthalmology, 2020), and the European Award in Medicine for Ophthalmology.

 Dr Rufai was awarded a prestigious NIHR Doctoral Fellowship grant of £426,000 to lead a world-first collaborative study (2019-present) between Leicester, GOSH and Oxford, the RIO Study: Recognition of Intracranial Hypertension in Children using Handheld OCT.

He has authored two best-selling ophthalmology books: MCQs for FRCOphth Part 1 (Oxford University Press, 2022), and A Practical Guide for Aspiring Ophthalmologists (World Scientific, 2021).