July/August Editorial - Right Environment

    As Chairperson of the Young Ophthalmologists Committee, I am delighted that EuroTimes has decided to dedicate this edition to doctors in training.The ESCRS has made major strides in the last 10 years in supporting YOs and has dedicated significant resources to helping them. One thing that I have learned from working with the YO Committee is that it is important that we talk to our trainee members about their individual needs. It is not our function to tell them how they can become good or even great ophthalmologists. We can train them and mentor them to the best of our abilities, but as my colleague Sorcha Ni Dhubhghaill points out in this edition, as trainers we also need to create the best environment for trainees who want to learn surgery. Personal interaction is very important and we must also see the person behind the doctor. For that reason, I would urge all our YO readers of EuroTimes to attend the XXXV Congress of the ESCRS in Lisbon, Portugal in October. I realise that financial pressures may make it difficult for trainees to attend our annual congresses, and for that reason we are awarding a number of bursaries to ESCRS trainee members who have a free paper or poster accepted for presentation at the congress. Recipients will receive complimentary meeting registration and €1,000 to cover their travel and hotel expenses. Bursary recipients will be selected from among the highest scoring accepted free papers and posters. We are also awarding a special €1,000 bursary for the winner of this year’s John Henahan Writing Prize. The topic for the essay is ‘How does commercial interest affect my career?’, a subject which generated a lot of interest from our trainees. We have shortlisted five of the outstanding essays and these are being published in this issue of EuroTimes and also in our September issue. The winner of the prize will be announced during the Video Awards ceremony in Lisbon. ESCRS EDUCATION Until relatively recently, all of our teaching and learning was done in lecture halls, in wetlabs, in operating theatres and through textbooks. Now, thanks to the phenomenal development of the Internet, we have so many new learning tools at our disposal. The new ESCRS Player now has a special section featuring videos from previous YO Programmes. The best videos have been selected and tagged with keywords which makes them easy to navigate. These videos can be viewed at: player.escrs.org/category/young-ophthalmologists YOs will also benefit from studying the Video of the Month and the EuroTimes Eye Contact video interviews with key opinion leaders, which are also available on the ESCRS Player. I would also direct trainees to our excellent ESCRS Education Portal which is a free online learning platform for ESCRS members at: education.escrs.org Hopefully, I will see many of our YOs in Lisbon when we can discuss these exciting initiatives in more detail. In the meantime, happy learning!