ESCRS - EURETINA president Gisbert Richard opens congress

EURETINA president Gisbert Richard opens congress

At the official Opening Ceremony, Gisbert Richard MD, president of EURETINA, welcomed delegates to Hamburg for five days of stimulating exchange, scientific debate and education in the fast-moving field of retinal research.

“It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 13th annual Congress of EURETINA in Hamburg. The success story of our society is of the kind that is probably unparalleled in European medicine. After starting in Hamburg 13 years ago with 300 attending guests, the meeting this year might be the largest retinological meeting worldwide,”
he said.

Prof Richard said that while much has been achieved, there was no question of allowing the momentum to falter.

“Our task is to preserve what we have reached, to carry it forward and to develop it further, without losing sight of the unit of the whole field of ophthalmology. This is a challenge because the general framework is rapidly changing,” he said.

Prof Richard said it was important to improve the exchange of ideas between European retinal specialists and to give them a voice in Europe.

“The progress in our subspecialty in the last few years has been immense, for example in the development of vitreoretinal surgery, the treatment of macular degeneration and many others. Other major advances are knocking on the door such as the development of the retinal chip, the application of stem cells, gene therapy and new drugs,”
he said.

Education is another key priority for EURETINA, said Prof Richard. “One especially vital task is to support young talented and motivated scientists to become well-trained ophthalmologists and we achieve this by expanding the education programme and introducing new courses,” he said.

The third focus for EURETINA is a political one, said Prof Richard, noting that the society needs to back-up innovations in diagnoses and therapies in guidelines, to draw up training curricula and to harmonise at a European level.

As part of the Opening Ceremony, the EURETINA Medal Lecture was delivered by Prof Leonidas Zografos on the topic of “Radiotherapy in Ocular Oncology.”

First prize in the EURETINA Video Competition Awards was presented to Juan B Yepez from Venezuela for his video entitled “Illuminated chopper for phacovitrectomy in PDR”.

Second prize went to Antonio Valladares Moreno from Spain for “Ahmed valve implantation associated with 23-gauge phaco-vitrectomy – placement of valve tube directly into vitreous chamber by 23-gauge sclerotomy” and third prize to Mounir Lezrek from Morocco for “Pars plana vitrectomy incidents – management and prevention”.

Musical entertainment during the Opening Ceremony was provided by the Die Hamburger Klabautermänner Shanty Choir, an all-male ensemble who took the audience on a maritime journey of seafarers’ heritage.

Francesco Bandello, president-elect of EURETINA, brought proceedings to a close by wishing delegates a productive and stimulating meeting.