EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES

A WORD FROM EMANUEL ROSEN, CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR OF EUROTIMES

Welcome to the April issue of EuroTimes which comes to you in a new size and format. The new A4 magazine is an ambitious step for the publication and I believe it will offer exciting new opportunities. The editors have felt for some time that A4 would be a much handier format especially now that we have iPad and online formats.

The magazine has a new identity which will allow us to incorporate exciting new elements. Our readers are highly qualified, highly intelligent and eager to be kept up to date with the latest developments in technology. Although the magazine will have a new look, our core principles will remain the same as we endeavour to be a trusted source of information and debate in the ophthalmology community and a valuable source of reference.

Now in its 19th year of publication, EuroTimes has seen many changes. We believe that the new format will allow the magazine to continue to grow and it will be even more attractive to our readers. We look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead as we continue to pursue our mission statement of providing “a European outlook on the world of ophthalmology”.

I am also delighted to see that as well as changing the look and feel of the magazine, the editors have decided to introduce some exciting new content to EuroTimes. This month’s issue includes a new column “Viewpoint” where key opinion leaders talk about some of the hot topics in ophthalmology.

This month’s column, written by Dr Peter Barry, past president and treasurer of ESCRS, asks the question: What does excellence look like? In this excellent article Dr Barry argues that while there have been exciting innovations in technology, ophthalmologists must never forget that their first duty is to their patients.

This article is timely and the editors hope that it will open up a lively and stimulating debate on this issue. I am also very pleased to see that April EuroTimes includes a new didactic section focusing on some of the basic issues facing young ophthalmologists in training. The first article in the series is by Dr Soosan Jacob, titled: “Making the perfect capsulorrhexis," and should be a valuable source of information and education for our trainees. So what else is new? As I mentioned earlier, we are now in an exciting era where traditional magazines like EuroTimes are being supported by online media through interactive websites and applications for iPhones and tablets.

While the print magazine will continue to be the flagship for the ESCRS, the editors are also conscious of the need to meet the online needs of our readers. With that in mind, we are redesigning and rebranding our website, www.eurotimes.org, and in an exciting new development we are producing an application that will give our readers better access to online tools such as video.

These are interesting times and over the next few months we will announce more initiatives. As always, thank you for reading and contributing to EuroTimes and we look forward to hearing your views and comments on our new-look magazine.