ESCRS Award

GRAND MEDAL

Dr Emanuel Rosen will receive the ESCRS Grand Medal of Merit in Vienna

[caption id='attachment_359' align='alignright' width='300' caption='Dr Rosen initiated the publication of ESCRS EuroTimes. Emanuel Rosen BSc, MD, FRCSEd, FRCOphth, FRPS'][/caption]

Emanuel Rosen BSc, MD, FRCSEd, FRCOphth, FRPS, will be awarded the ESCRS's highest accolade, the ESCRS Grand Medal of Merit, at the XXIX ESCRS Congress in Vienna, Austria. The medal will be presented at the Opening Ceremony of the congress on Sunday September 18, 2011. The medal is being awarded in recognition of his pioneering work as an ophthalmologist and for his outstanding contribution as a founding father of the ESCRS.

As an ophthalmic surgeon Dr Rosen's initial interests were centred on retinal disorders. In 1964-65 he was able, as a consequence of his life-long interest in photography, to refine the newly discovered technique of fundus fluorescein angiography. In 1969 having collected a unique portfolio of retinal disorders through the medium of angiography, he produced the first English language textbook on the subject. In 1973 he performed his first IOL implant after removing a cataract. Lens implants allowed modification of the focus of an eye, thus initiating a new era of ophthalmic surgery.

30 years after joining the Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester, UK, as a junior trainee, having spent 22 years as a consultant surgeon, Dr Rosen was approached by the management of the Pinderfields Health Care Trust in Wakefield Yorkshire, to advise them on the modernisation of their ophthalmic facilities. He advised them to create a cataract surgery day care centre where the nursing team members would play extended roles. The system maximised use of surgical skills in the operating theatres. This system has operated with dramatic effect on local eye care, for the past 10 years.

In the private sector, Dr Rosen pioneered the establishment of a unique facility of the practice of refractive surgery, culminating in the construction of a purpose-built unit at the Alexandra Hospital, Manchester, UK which opened in 1999.

ESCRS

In 1983 Dr Rosen was the instigator and first editor of the European Journal of Implant and Refractive Surgery, a peer-review journal which established international recognition of European cataract and refractive surgery. In 1995, the journal merged with its US counterpart, the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, and Dr Rosen became co-editor. At the same time he initiated the publication of ESCRS EuroTimes.

As president of the European Intra-ocular Implant Council (EIIC) in 1987, Dr Rosen served a five-year term during which he guided the transformation of the society into the ESCRS. In 2001, he was invited to deliver the Ridley Medal Lecture at the ESCRS congress in Amsterdam. He is currently an ESCRS Board member and chairman of the ESCRS Publications Committee.