Enter the ESCRS Innovation Award

[caption id="attachment_15851" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash[/caption] This award will focus on innovations from ophthalmologists and their practice staff that enhance patient services. The competition enables ophthalmologists to demonstrate what they have achieved with their entrepreneurial skills and show colleagues what they may be able to do in their own businesses. Entries should be based on a recent innovation introduced into a practice, clinic or hospital by an ophthalmologist. The innovation may be business- and/or customer- and/or society-focused, and its impact should be proven and measurable in qualitative and quantitative terms. There is no fee to enter and the competition is open to all ophthalmologists. Entrants are invited to submit a 200-word summary of their project along with a Powerpoint presentation with 10 slides, including the title and concluding slides. Entries should be sent to innovation@escrs.org. The closing date for entries is Friday July 24, 2020. A shortlist of entries will be selected by of the Practice Management and Development Committee with the shortlisted entrants invited to give a presentation on their projects at the 38th Congress of the ESCRS in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, during the Practice Management and Development Programme. The winner will be announced after the presentation of the shortlisted entries. The winning entrant will receive a €1,500 bursary to attend the 39th Congress of the ESCRS in Barcelona, Spain, in September 2021. The inaugural Innovation Award was presented to Julien Buratto, Operation Manager at the Neovision Cliniche Oculistiche, Milan, Italy at the 37th Congress of the ESCRS in Paris, France. The Neovision team developed a packet that included a card with vision and cataract information as well as a phone number to make a consultation – since those of the baby boomer generation are more likely to want to speak to a real person, rather than going online to make appointments. They then sold this online at amazon.it. Citing pioneering research scientist Everett Rogers and his diffusion of innovations theory – which broke people down into the categories of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards – Buratto noted that the Neovision clinic was the first to provide a medical service on Amazon. Buratto was keen to stress that the packet, which includes the price of a consultation, is not discounted. It’s not their goal to drive down prices, but rather to encourage people to care for their loved ones. “Medicine is not something that is frozen and cold, it must be sensitive to people’s emotions,” he said.