XXX Congress of the ESCRS 12TH 2nd WORLD CONGRESS OF ...
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3rd EuCORNEA CONGRESS 12TH EURETINA Congress 2nd WORLD CONGRESS OF PAEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGY AND STRABISMUS XXX Congress of the ESCRS Another record-breaking congress for the ESCRS T he momentum of the ESCRS continues on a firmly upward trajectory with a record-breaking number of delegates attending the XXX Congress of the society in Milan this year, ESCRS president Peter Barry said at the official Opening Ceremony. At the time of going to press, more than 6,700 delegates had registered for the congress. “I am delighted to welcome you all to our congress here in Milan and I think that the overlap with our colleague societies, EURETINA, EuCornea and the World Congress of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (WCPOS), will ensure the success of this meeting,” he said. Dr Barry reminded delegates of his pledge in taking office as president of the ESCRS to make youth, education and research the key themes of his two-year term of office. He also emphasised the manifold benefits of membership of the ESCRS, which now includes access to the society’s e-learning platform of CME-accredited courses on cataract, cornea and refractive surgery, with other instructional courses also in preparation. Further benefits cited by Dr Barry include access to the ‘ESCRS On Demand’ service, subscription to the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and reduced registration fees for both the ESCRS annual congress and the winter meeting. In terms of youth initiatives, Dr Barry said that the ESCRS now offers free membership to trainee ophthalmologists covering any three years of their training period. The society also offers 50 bursaries per year for attendance at the main meeting or the winter meeting, and a further 40 Observership grants to enable young ophthalmologists to visit a clinic abroad in order to enhance their clinical horizons. The importance of ESCRS research activities was also underscored by Dr Barry. “Our first major study was the Endophthalmitis Study and our second major study the EUREQUO study has now been completed with almost one million cataract surgical procedures in its database. The EUREQUO project is now going global and will accept subscriptions from those interested outside Europe,” he said. Another potential landmark study, the PreMED study on the prevention of macular oedema following cataract surgery in diabetic and non-diabetic patients, has been finalised and will complete patient recruitment over the coming weeks, said Dr Barry, adding that the selection process for new research projects for funding in 2013 is also now under way. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the founding meeting of the ESCRS under the presidency of Cornelius Binkhorst in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1982, Dr Barry said that an official History of the ESCRS was currently being compiled and would be published at the next congress of the ESCRS in Amsterdam in 2013. The ESCRS would also continue to support the charity initiatives commenced under the presidency of Jose Guell, he said. “I am delighted that we will be continuing to support these worthwhile initiatives with ORBIS and Oxfam. The ORBIS project specifically is dedicated to the training of ophthalmologists for their new paediatric unit at the Gondar Referral Hospital in Ethiopia and the Oxfam project is a long-term project to provide safe water and sanitation to the local population,” Dr Barry said. In his concluding remarks, Dr Barry announced that Roberto Bellucci, current secretary of the ESCRS and Board Member for Italy, had been elected to succeed him as president of the Society in January 2014. Defining success using measures that address patient needs R egistry data from 2.4 million European cataract surgeries over the past 15 years show continuous improvement in nearly every major clinical quality measure. Mean postoperative visual acuity steadily rose while average biometry prediction errors and rates of capsule complications, endophthalmitis and persistent cornea oedema all dropped. The exception is patient-reported improvement, which improved until 2009, but has plateaued or even declined slightly since, noted Mats Lundström MD, who delivered the Ridley Medal Lecture at the opening session of the ESCRS Congress. So what’s going on? “I think we are pushing the indications for cataract surgery,” said Prof Lundström in his talk entitled “Quality outcomes in cataract surgery: the real story.” A lack of reliable patient-reported outcomes data, leading to insufficient focus on patient needs, may be responsible. Simply put, some patients are too healthy while others are too sick to benefit from the procedure, Prof Lundström explained. For patients with significant ocular co-morbidities, improvement may not be possible. And for those on the healthy end, a poor refractive outcome or complication may leave the patient worse off. “If the visual acuity is excellent before surgery or if the patient has no visual disabilities and is very satisfied with vision before surgery, there is an obvious risk for problems after surgery.” Patients must be advised of these potential outcomes as part of the informed consent process, Prof Lundström said. He suggested that all of patients’ questions can be summarised to just one: “what will happen to me, doctor?” Answering reliably requires that surgeons track their outcomes, particularly patient- reported outcomes, using measures capable of consistently distinguishing among patients with a wide range of conditions. Individual survey questions also must be easy for patients to understand, must measure the same underlying trait, and each one must add meaningful information. The Catquest 9SF questionnaire that Prof Lundström developed has been validated for these qualities in several languages. This makes it possible to validly benchmark and compare patient-reported responses. But many cataract surgeons in Europe don’t even see their patients after surgery. This makes learning from patients’ reported experience impossible. “Knowing your results is part of the job,” Prof Lundström said. He thanked and lauded the courage of the thousands of surgeons across Europe who contribute data to outcome registries. “It is their willingness to report and their dedication to quality improvement that is behind the success.” Prof Lundström also honoured the memory of Sir Harold Ridley, with whom he shares an interest not only in cataract surgery, but also fly fishing. Prof Lundström took it up in 2001, 30 years after he started cataract surgery training. He noted that the two pursuits share many characteristics, including elaborate tools and techniques, but also the bottom line. “In the end the only thing that counts in either is the outcome.” Prof Lundström was honoured with the Ridley Medal for his work in cataract surgery outcomes research by ESCRS president Peter Barry FRCS. Notably, Prof Lundström was a founder of the Swedish National Cataract Register in 1992 and the European Registry of Quality Outcomes for Cataract and Refractive Surgery (EUREQUO) in 2008, and conducted the European Cataract Outcome Study from 1995 to 2009, which laid the groundwork for EUREQUO. These projects have become a model not only for outcomes reporting in ophthalmology, but for other specialties as well, “There is nothing about outcomes research that Mats Lundström doesn’t know,” Dr Barry said. Mats Lundström delivered this year’s Ridley Medal Lecture Peter Barry, president of ESCRS, speaking at the Opening Ceremony
Transcript of XXX Congress of the ESCRS 12TH 2nd WORLD CONGRESS OF ...
3rd EuCORNEA CONGRESS
12TH EURETINA Congress2nd WORLD CONGRESS OF PAEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGY AND STRABISMUS
XXX Congress of the ESCRS
Another record-breaking congress for the ESCRS
The momentum of the ESCRS continues on a firmly upward trajectory with a record-breaking number of delegates attending the XXX Congress of the society in Milan this year, ESCRS president Peter
Barry said at the official Opening Ceremony. At the time of going to press, more than 6,700 delegates had registered for the congress. “I am delighted to welcome you all to our congress here in Milan and I think that the overlap with our colleague societies, EURETINA, EuCornea and the World Congress of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (WCPOS), will ensure the success of this meeting,” he said.
Dr Barry reminded delegates of his pledge in taking office as president of the ESCRS to make youth, education and research the key themes of his two-year term of office.
He also emphasised the manifold benefits of membership of the ESCRS, which now includes access to the society’s e-learning platform of CME-accredited courses on cataract, cornea and refractive surgery, with other instructional courses also in preparation. Further benefits cited by Dr Barry include access to the ‘ESCRS On Demand’ service, subscription to the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and reduced registration fees for both the ESCRS annual congress and the winter meeting.
In terms of youth initiatives, Dr Barry said that the ESCRS now offers free membership to trainee ophthalmologists covering any three years of their training period. The society also offers 50 bursaries per year for attendance at the main meeting or the winter meeting, and a further 40 Observership grants to enable young ophthalmologists to visit a clinic abroad in order to enhance their clinical horizons.
The importance of ESCRS research activities was also underscored by Dr Barry.
“Our first major study was the Endophthalmitis Study and our second major study the EUREQUO study has now been completed with almost one million cataract surgical
procedures in its database. The EUREQUO project is now going global and will accept subscriptions from those interested outside Europe,” he said.
Another potential landmark study, the PreMED study on the prevention of macular oedema following cataract surgery in diabetic and non-diabetic patients, has been finalised and will complete patient recruitment over the coming weeks, said Dr Barry, adding that the selection process for new research projects for funding in 2013 is also now under way.
In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the founding meeting of the ESCRS under the presidency of Cornelius Binkhorst in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1982, Dr Barry said that an official History of the ESCRS was currently being compiled and would be published at the next congress of the ESCRS in Amsterdam in 2013.
The ESCRS would also continue to support the charity initiatives commenced under the presidency of Jose Guell, he said.
“I am delighted that we will be continuing to support these worthwhile initiatives with ORBIS and Oxfam. The ORBIS project specifically is dedicated to the training of ophthalmologists for their new paediatric unit at the Gondar Referral Hospital in Ethiopia and the Oxfam project is a long-term project to provide safe water and sanitation to the local population,” Dr Barry said.
In his concluding remarks, Dr Barry announced that Roberto Bellucci, current secretary of the ESCRS and Board Member for Italy, had been elected to succeed him as president of the Society in January 2014.
Defining success using measures that address patient needs
Registry data from 2.4 million European cataract surgeries over the past 15 years show continuous improvement in nearly every
major clinical quality measure. Mean postoperative visual acuity steadily rose while average biometry prediction errors and rates of capsule complications, endophthalmitis and persistent cornea oedema all dropped.
The exception is patient-reported improvement, which improved until 2009, but has plateaued or even declined slightly since, noted Mats Lundström MD, who delivered the Ridley Medal Lecture at the opening session of the ESCRS Congress.
So what’s going on? “I think we are pushing the indications for cataract surgery,” said Prof Lundström in his talk entitled “Quality outcomes in cataract surgery: the real story.” A lack of reliable patient-reported outcomes data, leading to insufficient focus on patient needs, may be responsible.
Simply put, some patients are too healthy while others are too sick to benefit from the procedure, Prof Lundström explained. For patients with significant ocular co-morbidities, improvement may not be possible. And for those on the healthy end, a poor refractive outcome or complication
may leave the patient worse off. “If the visual acuity is excellent before surgery or if the patient has no visual disabilities and is very satisfied with vision before surgery, there is an obvious risk for problems after surgery.”
Patients must be advised of these potential outcomes as part of the informed consent process, Prof Lundström said. He suggested that all of patients’ questions can be summarised to just one: “what will happen to me, doctor?”
Answering reliably requires that surgeons track their outcomes, particularly patient-reported outcomes, using measures capable of consistently distinguishing among patients with a wide range of conditions. Individual survey questions also must be easy for patients to understand, must measure the same underlying trait, and each one must add meaningful information. The Catquest 9SF questionnaire that Prof Lundström developed has been validated for these qualities in several languages. This makes it possible to validly benchmark and compare patient-reported responses.
But many cataract surgeons in Europe don’t even see their patients after surgery. This makes learning from patients’ reported experience impossible.
“Knowing your results is part of the job,” Prof Lundström said. He thanked and lauded the courage of the thousands of surgeons across Europe who contribute data to outcome registries. “It is their willingness to report and their dedication to quality improvement that is behind the success.”
Prof Lundström also honoured the memory of Sir Harold Ridley, with whom he shares an interest not only in cataract surgery, but also fly fishing. Prof Lundström took it up in 2001, 30 years after he started cataract surgery training. He noted that the two pursuits share many characteristics, including elaborate tools and techniques, but also the bottom line. “In the end the only thing that counts in either is the outcome.”
Prof Lundström was honoured with the Ridley Medal for his work in cataract surgery outcomes research by ESCRS president Peter Barry FRCS. Notably, Prof Lundström was a founder of the Swedish National Cataract Register in 1992 and the European Registry of Quality Outcomes for Cataract and Refractive Surgery (EUREQUO) in 2008, and conducted the European Cataract Outcome Study from 1995 to 2009, which laid the groundwork for EUREQUO.
These projects have become a model not only for outcomes reporting in ophthalmology, but for other specialties as well, “There is nothing about outcomes research that Mats Lundström doesn’t know,” Dr Barry said.
Mats Lundström delivered this year’s Ridley Medal Lecture
Peter Barry, president of ESCRS, speaking at the Opening Ceremony
