ESCRS IS A GREAT SUCCESS STORY

In 1982, the European Intra-Ocular Implant Council (EIIC) held its first meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands. Some 11 years later in 1993 in Innsbruck, Austria, the society held its first meeting as the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). This year’s congress in Milan is the XXX ESCRS Congress and will see the beginning of a number of important new initiatives to celebrate the achievements of the society. Among these is the commissioning of The History of ESCRS which will be published in 2013. “The ESCRS is an extraordinary success story,†said Peter Barry, president of ESCRS. “The aim of our official history will be to tell the story of the society from the beginning, drawing on the recollections of people such as Emanuel Rosen, Karl Jacobi, Ulf Stenevi, Paddy Condon and Philippe Sourdille. They were all innovators, fighting what was really an uphill battle to gain acceptance of the concept of intraocular lens implantation. The reason for the establishment of the EIIC was that the people called together by Binkhorst in The Hague were the very people who were the pioneers, or about to become the pioneers, of the whole complex procedure of intraocular lens implantation. Archive As part of the project, ESCRS is also establishing an archive which will include programmes from past conferences, photos from private collections and from EuroTimes and other material. The book will draw on this material and on the personal recollections of the early founders and those who helped to develop the society in later years. “This is a very important project,†said Emanuel Rosen, chairman of the ESCRS Publications Committee. “We have been talking about commissioning a history of the society for a long time and as we celebrate our 30th congress, it is fitting that we acknowledge the contributions of our great colleagues and friends. “Sadly, some of them are no longer with us, including Cornelius Binkhorst, Harold Ridley and Michael Blumenthal, but we are lucky to be able to draw on the recollections of many of our early members who have devoted most of their working lives to establishing ESCRS,†he said.

An international outlook As Philippe Sourdille points out, one of the strengths of the ESCRS has been that it has brought together eye surgeons from different countries and backgrounds to work for a common cause. “More than 20 years ago, the whole concept of Europe as a unified continent was not a unanimously accepted idea,†he said. “What was really present and tangible from the beginning of the ESCRS was a very enthusiastic European patriotism which made us work together,†he said. “Our common cause was the furtherance of scientific enquiry in a discipline that was dear to all of our hearts.†The History of ESCRS will also acknowledge the key role that industry has played in the development of new technologies and techniques but it will also stress the importance of the independence of the society which at every congress endeavours to make sure that the scientific content of the presentations are robust and independent. “We have to ensure that our standard of independence is maintained. We all recognise the symbiotic relationship that is necessary for functioning and the valuable contribution that industry has made to the society, but we are recognised as being independent such that scientific presentations at meetings are not commercially based,†said Dr Barry.

Harold Ridley The book will also put into context the struggles and challenges that the early pioneers faced. On a rotating basis every two years, the society honours Cornelius Binkhorst and Harold Ridley, whose memories live on through the Binkhorst and Ridley Medal Lectures which are among the highlights of each congress. Ridley’s story has been told by the late Dr David Apple in his book Sir Harold Ridley and His Fight for Sight (Slack Incorporated 2006), but The History of ESCRS will attempt to put his contribution to the society into a broader context. “Delivering the Ridley Lecture in Amsterdam the year of his death, 2001, was an emotional moment for me,†said Emanuel Rosen. “Ridley was feted around the world and had the satisfaction of knowing his work was really appreciated, which is not always the case with pioneers.†Cornelius Binkhorst Cornelius Binkhorst was the first president of the EIIC, an office he held from 1982 to 1986. In the early years, his name was synonymous with EIIC and as Dr Rosen has noted, Binkhorst was also one of the leading ophthalmological surgeons of his generation. “Even today, I still see patients I operated on in the early days of my career with implants of the Binkhorst variety which are still functioning,†said Dr Rosen. Michael Blumenthal Michael Blumenthal helped to organise the EIIC meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1987 and went on to serve as ESCRS president in 1996 and 1997. His memory is commemorated by ESCRS through the annual Michael Blumenthal Award for the winner of the ESCRS Video Competition. Again Dr Rosen has remarked on his immense contribution to the society. “He was a wonderful surgeon and travelled all over the world to perform his form of cataract surgery,†said Dr Rosen. “He had a great vision for the society and was a great enthusiast.â€

Centralised secretariat The Dublin meeting in 1990, organised by Peter Barry and Paddy Condon, marked another major milestone in the history of the society. The conference was organised by a local Irish event management company, Agenda Communications, and was widely acknowledged to be one of the most successful EIIC meetings. Dr Rosen, who served as EIIC/ESCRS president from 1987 to 1993, had been campaigning for a full-time secretariat for ESCRS. In 1993 in Innsbruck, Austria, Agenda Communications took over the running of all ESCRS congresses. The company now employs 28 full-time staff and is responsible for the organisation and running of the annual ESCRS congress and the society’s general activities.

JCRS and EuroTimes Another significant development following the establishment of the permanent secretariat was the amalgamation of the American peer-reviewed Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery and the European Journal of Implant and Refractive Surgery, which came together as The Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (JCRS). Up to 1995, ESCRS had its own journal but the society felt it was not getting the recognition it deserved. That year, following discussions with the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), it was decided to merge the journals. “The first joint issue was in 1996,†said Dr Rosen. “We had our tenth anniversary issue in 2006 and we are still getting stronger being ranked 8th in Journals of Clinical Ophthalmology. I became co-editor with Stephen Obstbaum. We joined forces with the common aim of ensuring the Europeans had an equal share in content of the journal and the financial people on both sides got together to ensure the journal was properly managed by the two societies.†The launch of JCRS also coincided with the publication in 1996 of the first issue of the society’s news magazine, EuroTimes. EuroTimes, which now reaches over 32,000 ophthalmologists around the world, is published 10 times a year and carries reports from the major ophthalmological congresses all over the world and also updates on ESCRS activities.

New decade, new millennium The last 10 years, as The History of ESCRS will detail, have marked a dramatic increase in the level of the society’s activities with the launch of a number of new projects that have allowed the society to expand its educational services to members. These include the Endophthalmitis Study, ESCRS On Demand, the Young Ophthalmologists’ Programme, the Practice Development Programme, EUREQUO and iLearn. There has also been a decisive shift in the society’s orbit of influence with the membership of the established national societies in western Europe now being augmented with new members from the new European countries in eastern Europe. Recent Winter Meetings have been held in Istanbul, Budapest and Prague and the 2013 Winter Meeting will take place in Warsaw. “From my perspective,†said Dr Rosen,†going back to the early days of 1982, the last 30 years have gone in a flash. We have moved from an embryo to a fully fledged important European ophthalmological organisation. Research But while the society continues to grow, as Dr Sourdille points out, it must not lose sight of its primary role in education and research. Dr Sourdille was a founder of the ESCRS Clinical Research Committee. “Innovation is at the heart of the ESCRS,†he said. “One of the main challenges that we have today, which is not unique to our society, is the fact that when we come to a meeting we have approximately 30 simultaneous events and we need to know how to make the best use of the time available to us. I think we can help delegates to filter information and to prioritise. We are subjected to such a huge amount of information through the Internet, journals, trade journals and there are some very exciting meetings, but we need to be there to help our members sort out the truly important information.†The future While The History of ESCRS will look back on the past, it will also offer members of the society an opportunity to look forward to the future. “The challenges facing the society over the next five to 10 years will be first of all survival given the economic difficulties that Europe finds itself in, given the progressive reduction in the funding of healthcare. Ophthalmology has to fight for its share of that budget; cataract surgery has to fight for its share of the budget within the different countries. I think that the ESCRS can play a major role in that because it’s scientific studies, such as EUREQUO, prove the benefits of our work to the health providers,†said Dr Barry. Work in progress Finally, Dr Rosen says the story of the society is best told through its members. “This is very much a work in progress,†he said, “although we have a deadline to get the book to the publishers to ensure that we can distribute the book to members and delegates at the XXXI ESCRS Congress in Amsterdam. We are still looking for old programmes, photos and other memorabilia and we would like to talk to other members, particularly those who remember the very early years of the society. It goes without saying that we cannot include everything in the book, but we will strive as best we can to produce a publication that will tell our story in as comprehensive a way as possible,†he said.