WCPOS IS CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

The second World Congress of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (WCPOS) meeting in Milan, Italy will send out the message that expertise does not reside in one part of the world.

At our first meeting in Barcelona in 2009, people who ordinarily did not get the chance to present on the world stage were given the opportunity to speak to their colleagues. When they did so, it changed the perceptions of some of the paediatric ophthalmologists in the developed world.

This helps to give WCPOS a collegial ethos. When you are collegial, you can really discuss important and controversial matters. We recognise that the majority of eye care delivered to children in the world is by adult ophthalmic surgeons who see children, as well as dedicated paediatric ophthalmologists.

It is really important that adult ophthalmic surgeons who are taking the time to look after children feel that they are able to discuss their expertise and their problems with paediatric ophthalmologists. In turn, paediatric ophthalmologists can learn from their adult counterparts about techniques that they are not aware of.

At our first meeting, we had 970 delegates from 133 countries. This year in Milan, our second meeting will be held alongside the annual congresses of ESCRS, EURETINA and EuCornea. WCPOS will have joint symposia with these societies. For the first time ever in a paediatric ophthalmology meeting, we are also going to have wet labs using pig eye models that are as close to children’s capsules as they can be.

Because our first meeting was so successful, we have also been able to broaden our programme to three days and in those three days we will offer a variety of subjects that were not covered last time including early visual rehabilitation. This is very important because reading disorders are becoming more prevalent all over the world. Our two keynote speakers are giants in ophthalmology. They are Emilio Campos and Gerry Shields and we are delighted and honoured that they have agreed to speak at our meeting.

I also hope to see many young ophthalmologists attending our meeting. We want the World Society of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabisumus (WSPOS) to be a global organisation that reaches out to ophthalmologists of all age groups. The future of paediatric eye care lies in individuals who are enthused and energetic and committed to paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.

We are offering an opportunity for people who are not sure if they are interested in paediatric ophthalmology to come and learn about a broad spectrum of subjects that we hope will instill enthusiasm in them to take up the challenges that we are going to discuss.

Finally, I would like to thank EuroTimes, the official magazine of ESCRS, for giving WCPOS the opportunity to speak to its 32,000 readers. I am delighted that this issue of EuroTimes has a special focus on paediatric ophthalmology and I urge you to read the excellent articles that have been written to publicise our meeting and also to give the wider ophthalmic opportunity a new insight into paediatric ophthalmology.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you in Milan.