PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

The recent Congress of the ESCRS held in London was attended by 8,132 delegates, the biggest ever attendance in the history of the Society, and I would like to thank every single doctor and colleague who took part in it.
As I stated in my address at the opening ceremony, our community gathers at home once a year – and the name of this home is the ESCRS. Like every home, we are constantly looking for improvements and the strength of our society is that we have continued to renovate and refurbish. 
I am very proud to be the president of such a great organisation that uses past knowledge to build a brighter future for our profession and for our young delegates. 
And this month’s EuroTimes gives a perfect example of the ESCRS’s role in bridging past and future. To stress this point, Dr Günther Grabner’s Ridley Medal lecture in London has shown us how much can change over 40 years.
Dr Grabner paid tribute to early pioneers at the 2nd University Eye Clinic in Vienna, where he trained, such as Eduard Jaeger, Karl Koller and Ernst Fuchs, personal mentors such as Prof Hans Slezak, Dennis Shepard MD, Santa Maria, and his teachers at the FI Proctor Foundation, UCSF, such as Dick O’Connor, Gil Smolin MD and Mitch Friedlaender MD. 
He also reflected on the visionary accomplishment of Harold Ridley, the inventor of the intraocular lens (IOL). Dr Grabner finished his lecture by pointing out that it was important never to lose sight of the everyday wonder of a profession that could do so much good for so many people. “We need to remember the words of Sir Harold Ridley that ‘even when a miracle becomes routine, it still remains a miracle’,” he said.
I echo those comments and I hope in the next 30 years we will be able to reflect on the achievements of a new generation of innovators.
As a society, we are very lucky to have not only many experienced ophthalmologists giving us their time to help us develop an excellent scientific programme every year, but we are also very fortunate to have so many talented young ophthalmologists taking part in our activities.
One of these young ophthalmologists, Dr Lampros Lamprogiannis, was the winner of the 2014 John Henahan Prize for his essay ‘How Do I See Cataract Surgery in 30 years?’ and in this month’s EuroTimes you can share Dr Lamprogiannis’s vision of the future.
Our Cover Story also addresses this theme and it includes some fascinating insights into how our specialty might develop in the future.
My personal view is that the cataract procedure will be more automated and the surgeon will act partially as a consultant, explaining options to patients and overseeing procedures carried out largely by machines. This does not mean that we will no longer need skilled practitioners. As my colleague Oliver Findl points out, patients will still want personal care and to be taken care of in a personal fashion. 
However, the increasing role of machinery in helping the surgeon’s hand and of the Internet in helping the surgeon’s brain and memory cannot be neglected. Once more we are living in a time of change, a time of opportunity, and an exciting time of enthusiasm.

* Roberto Bellucci MD is president of the ESCRS