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Interview with Gabriel van Rij, MD, PhD
The president of the European Society of Ophthalmology speaks about the society’s upcoming Congress and what visitors can expect in Amsterdam.
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 Gabriel van Rij |
Ocular Surgery News: What will be the main highlights of the 17th Congress of the European Society of Ophthalmology?
Gabriel van Rij, MD, PhD: It is a high-quality meeting. All subspecialty societies in Europe are participating and also the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Cornea Society; they would be world organizations. So we organized the Congress through the specialty societies and by doing that, we have a top-quality meeting.
OSN: What hot topics in European ophthalmology will be most presented at the meeting? What will you be focusing on?
Dr. van Rij: We will focus on all subspecialities, but of course, a hot topic is always wet age-related macular degeneration treatment. The keynote lecture by Philip Rosenfeld, MD, will touch on that.
Glaucoma is also very important. We have a lot of glaucoma symposia, and also [symposia on] diabetic retinopathy.
OSN: What aspects of the meetings are you most looking forward to?
Dr. van Rij: I am in cornea, so apart from organizing it, I am interested in cornea and, of course, we have excellent symposia on cornea. They are organized by a good friend of mine who asked to do this, and he is a professor in Germany, Friedrich Kruse.
OSN: How is the organization of the meeting going?
Dr. van Rij: We have to touch wood of course, but right now it’s going very well. The majority of registration is coming … [but] not from the largest countries. So for instance, from France, our registration is usually low. It might have to do with the language problems, and they have a good meeting of their own in May. So the majority of participants are coming from the smaller countries in Europe, not the biggest.
OSN: What would you say is the country that has the most registration?
Dr. van Rij: This year, it will be from the Netherlands because that is where the Congress is (Amsterdam, June 13-16). Last meeting, the largest registration was from Austria because it was in Austria.
OSN: How many attendees are you anticipating?
Dr. van Rij: We think we will go over 4,000.
OSN: What were the SOE’s main goals when organizing this meeting?
Dr. van Rij: The symposia has about 70 invited speakers, so there is a lot of symposia of high-quality speakers and about 30 instruction courses and then four keynote lectures. And there are rapid-fire sessions. I like rapid-fire sessions myself because they are short and entertaining. So truly if you want to have an excellent meeting of high quality, it is the place to go in Europe.
It has been going on now for more than 50 years. In the beginning, they organized a European Congress every 4 years. About 20 years ago, they started to do it every 2 years. It is always in a country in Europe. It has been about 40 years ago that it was for the last time in the Netherlands, so it really became time to do it in the Netherlands again. In 2007, it was in Vienna and it was a very successful meeting.
We also have the EUPO (Association of the European University Professors of Ophthalmology) course that is done before the SOE Congress, and that is to attract the residents. We like to attract young people to our meeting. We have some ways of doing it. EUPO is also an independent organization, but I happen to be also the president of EUPO, and that also helps, of course. The EUPO course is aimed at residents. … If they are nominated by the National Society to present the best lecture at the annual meeting, as a reward they get a diploma and they get free registration at the next European Congress.
Of course, our aim is to work together with the other ophthalmic institutes and societies in Europe.
OSN: What can attendees look forward to in visiting the site of this year’s meeting in Amsterdam?
Dr. van Rij: It is a very old city with excellent museums, old art, new art and the Van Gogh Museum. That is what many foreigners like best, I think, the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House. … There is excellent music, there is a concert hall and orchestra. There is the Rembrandt House Museum — he is also one of the well-known painters in this country.
But of course, they have to come for the Congress. That is the first and most important thing.
- Gabriel van Rij MD, PhD, is professor and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 2040, Rotterdam, 3000 CA, Netherlands; +31-10-703 36 91; fax: +31-10-703-51-05; e-mail: g.vanrij@erasmusmc.nl.