John Henahan Prize Winner 2018

The winner of this year’s John Henahan Prize for Young Ophthalmologists is Dr Joséphine Behaegel. Dr Behaegel is a resident in the University Hospital Brussels, Belgium, and a researcher at the Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium. The winning entry for the writing competition was on the topic of Do We Need A Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial in Cataract Surgery? Emanuel Rosen, chief medical editor of EuroTimes and chairman of the judging panel, said all the submissions were of the highest quality making selection of a winner extremely difficult. “We drew up a shortlist of five entries from which we would choose the eventual winner,” said Dr Rosen. “The shortlisted essays were published in EuroTimes and anybody who read them will see what a difficult decision the judges had to make. “Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are our guide to raising standards in cataract surgery. This winning entry not only encapsulates the essence of the importance of RCTs but is written in a style that encourages belief that the author will be a forceful communicator in her future career,” said Dr Rosen. Dr Rosen was joined on the judging panel by Thomas Kohnen, chairman of the ESCRS Publications Committee; José Güell, former president of the ESCRS; Oliver Findl, chairman of the ESCRS Young Ophthalmologists Committee; Sean Henahan, editor of EuroTimes; Paul McGinn, editor of EuroTimes; and Robert Henahan, contributing editor of EuroTimes. Dr Behaegel received a travel bursary worth €1,000 to attend the 36th Congress of the ESCRS and a special trophy was presented to her at the Video Awards Session.