EUCORNEA IS GROWING

The second EuCornea congress in Vienna saw close to 700 delegates registering for the meeting. We also had packed lecture rooms for all of the sessions. We had 99 free papers and over 100 posters at the meeting. Delegates came not only from Europe, but from all over the world. We expect to match or exceed this at the third EuCornea congress in Milan, Italy, in September.

A fair proportion of the success of the society can be attributed to the collaboration with ESCRS and we hope that the collaboration will continue to be fruitful for the foreseeable future. As a new society we still face the usual challenges. Delegates’ and speakers’ time and money is a limited resource. They choose to spend their time and money wisely and select meetings that are special and meet their needs from amongst the numerous events organised the world over.

Our biggest challenge is to sustain our attraction by inviting renowned opinion leaders to deliver keynote lectures and putting up a scientific programme that serves the needs of general ophthalmologists and cornea and ocular surface disease specialists of all ages and experience.

Our strength is in our large number of young delegates who submit their clinical and scientific research to our meeting and we will continue to encourage young ophthalmologists to join our society and attend our meetings.

Our second congress took place in Vienna, Austria in September 2011 and work is already well advanced on the programme for our third congress in Milan, Italy in 2012. The latest in anterior lamellar and endothelial transplantation, new developments and applications of lasers in corneal surgery, a showcase symposium on new scientific research in cornea and ocular surface, collagen cross linking, keratoprosthesis and artificial cornea are among the hot topics that will be discussed. In addition, a highlight will be the 3rd EuCornea Medal Lecture.

The 3rd EuCornea Congress will coincide with the XXX ESCRS Congress. Although the corneal, cataract and refractive surgeons distinguish themselves in relation to the primary area of their specialisation, the ‘cornea’ ‘lens’ and the eye do not.

In real terms, these tissues relate to each other in their physiology (transparency) and function (refraction and transmission of light). Each impacts on the other and several pathologies are inter-related. Hence there is considerable scope for all of us to share our expertise and learn from each other’s knowledge and experience. In 2012 we have a special joint symposium with ESCRS, which I expect as before, will be a big attraction.

My special thanks to the council of ESCRS, the Board of EuCornea and the staff of Agenda for bringing EuCornea to its present global status. I look forward to seeing you all in Milan in September and in the meantime, I would encourage you to visit our website at: www.eucornea.org.