ESCRS President Peter Barry in his own words

I have been associated with the ESCRS since the early 1990s and am honoured and delighted to be elected president of the society.

Over the last 20 years ESCRS has become a strong and successful society. Our annual congress is one of the largest on the global ophthalmology calendar. Because of my long association with ESCRS, I have a good understanding of how the society operates and a very good understanding of its many strengths. I also see many opportunities for us to use our strengths for the benefit of our members and the ophthalmic community.

Young ophthalmologists are the future of our society. As I get older, one of my greatest pleasures is seeing one of my trainees carry out a cataract operation from beginning to end without my assistance and then moving onto more difficult cases. ESCRS must continue and increase its support for young ophthalmologists. From this year membership of ESCRS, including all member benefits, is free to all trainee ophthalmologists.

At present we are providing bursaries for trainees from across Europe to attend the ESCRS winter and annual congresses. The Observership Programme provides 40 places for young ophthalmologists annually to benefit from a €1000 grant which allows them visit a European cataract or clinical refractive centre. I think the time has come for ESCRS to establish a Young Ophthalmologists’ Committee to direct further programmes aimed at their generation. In addition to having their own committee these young doctors will be seconded to other ESCRS committees. Here they will learn how the ESCRS is organised and they will contribute fresher new ideas to our discussions.

Continuing medical education is a legal requirement in almost every European country. ESCRS must enhance its educational programme for cataract and refractive surgeons to meet this growing need. Distance learning is an important part of the future for CME education and at the ESCRS winter meeting in Prague we will launch iLearn, the ESCRS’s online elearning platform. This platform, which has been over a year in development, will complement and expand in a didactic format on the education provided at our two annual meetings. The iLearn platform will be available free of charge to ESCRS members.

We must have a strong commitment to research. I had the good fortune to be chairman of the ESCRS Antibiotic Prophylaxis of Endophthalmitis Following Cataract Surgery Study which was completed in 2006. The successful completion of this clinical study has achieved an international and academic reputation for the society. Following on the results of this study, in 2012 ESCRS will commission a European-wide survey on the use of intracameral cefuroxime as prophylaxis before cataract surgery.

The European Registry of Quality Outcomes for Cataract and Refractive Surgery – EUREQUO Project – co-funded by the EU and the ESCRS, is coming to a conclusion after three years. This project funded the establishment of a European-wide database for the collection of data on the outcomes of cataract and refractive surgery. By the end of this year ESCRS will have collected data on the outcomes of 750,000 surgeries. The purpose of all surgery is the achievement of a safe, successful, quality visual outcome without complications. This will never be achievable in all cases but by collecting data through EUREQUO we can provide benchmarks for people to judge themselves and the performances of their clinics. ESCRS will continue to support the EUREQUO project for a further three years.

After a call for new research project proposals in 2010, ESCRS have recently agreed to fund a three-year clinical trial proposed by the University Group in Maastricht, Netherlands on the prevention of cystoid macular edema following cataract surgery. ESCRS has earmarked a sizeable fund to support research projects and will be issuing a new call for projects in 2012.

In addition to providing financial support it is my intention that ESCRS fund a research officer in the Dublin office to oversee the current projects, set up and develop a strong central system for judging and vetting research projects and provide expertise to those seeking funding from ESCRS and other sources.

We need an Endophthalmitis Registry. Sweden is one of very few countries who have an endophthalmitis registry. We should take the Swedish model and develop a European-wide ESCRS Endophthalmitis Registry. This would be for intraocular surgery specifically but it could also cover other areas because the cumulative risk of endophthalmitis for any patient receiving multiple injections of anti-VEGF agents is now greater than the risk of endophthalmitis following cataract surgery.

I would have loved the opportunity 25 years ago to have learned about practice development. I was very impressed by the presentations I heard when I attended the recent ESCRS Practice Development Workshops and Masterclass in Dublin in November 2011. Education in the principles of business and management is not available to trainees in their national training programmes but all professionals and especially those in the healthcare field will have to pay more attention to the business of their practices in the future. There will be courses on practice management and development at the ESCRS Congress in Milan in 2012 and a second Workshop and Masterclass in Dublin next November.

Collaboration is important but we must not forget who we are and what we do. We are all aware of the explosion of meetings in the ophthalmological world. ESCRS has sought in recent years to develop strategic partnerships with other sub-specialty societies and to partner our meetings to take advantage of the synergies which exist between us. These relationships are very important but we must also be careful to stress that we are all independent organisations which do excellent work representing our own members.

We value the support of industry but we must remain independent. Cataract and refractive surgery is relatively unique in the symbiotic relationship it has with the medical device and pharmaceutical industry. We will continue building on this relationship and are grateful for the support we receive but we will also continue to preserve our clinical independence and freedom so that the scientific content of our meetings is doctor-led rather than industry sponsored.

Charitable initiatives are very important for the society. Our support of Oxfam and ORBIS has been very rewarding. We should continue working with these organisations and funding their projects by perhaps introducing an optional levy to the annual ESCRS registration fee. The society should also continue to donate some of its own funds to the projects.

Finally, I think it is important that while we look to the future we recognise the contribution of all the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

With that in mind, I would like to see the publication of an official history of the ESCRS. This project has been discussed for several years and on the 30th anniversary of our first congress, I think this would be an excellent time to record our achievements in print.

As a doctor and an ophthalmologist nothing can match the experience of meeting a patient on the first postoperative day with a smile on their face because they are seeing what they could not see before. This is a joy I share with all of my colleagues. The presidency of the ESCRS comes at the pinnacle of my career and I look forward to the next two years and a time of further growth and success for the ESCRS.