WOC Newsmaker Interview: Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, PhD

Dr. Belfort, president of the 2006 World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo, explains the global significance of the event.

As a service to our readers, Ocular Surgery News presents the latest installment of our ongoing interview series with organizing leaders of the World Ophthalmology Congress in Hong Kong. The following is an excerpt from the transcript of the original podcast interview series, which is available online at www.OSNSuperSite.com/podcast.asp.

Ocular Surgery News: Based on your own experience as president of the 2006 WOC [in São Paulo, Brazil], why is the WOC an important ophthalmological event?

Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, PhD: The WOC is a very important ophthalmological event because it doesn’t matter what people say and keep repeating — the truth is that the international community in ophthalmology is still very small. And many of the problems we face now, not only in the developed world, but in all the different worlds … depend on better communication to be solved. They include many aspects that regional, national and even supranational congresses usually do not approach and discuss.

Rubens Belfort Jr.

I’ll give you an example. People talk a lot about efficacy [and] the way drugs work. Most of the drugs are developed in the United States, even in Western Europe, and then they are used worldwide. More and more, scientific data now tells us that a drug may be good for one population, even parts of one country, and not be good at all in others. It’s very important that people get together and have this approach and try to understand why sometimes the results are so different.

You may say that results are different because ophthalmologists sometimes treat the same disease in different ways because they do not have a uniform way to diagnose. You may also say the opposite. But it may be that sometimes the results are different, not because the diagnosis is wrong or the treatment is not really given the right way. It may be the results are bad because patients are different, and one example of this is probably glaucoma. Glaucoma in the Eastern and Western worlds may be completely different, and the diagnosis and the rationale for the treatment therefore has to be different. And [this] kind of Congress is important because of that.

OSN: Did you learn anything from the 2006 meeting that has helped with this meeting’s organization or planning?

Dr. Belfort: Yes. I believe that the international community in the last 10 years in ophthalmology has grown and learned a lot. The whole idea of changing the name of the International Congress of Ophthalmology to the World Ophthalmology Congress shows how important it is to think globally. But we need to think globally, but act locally. And the World Ophthalmology Congress in São Paulo has shown us how important this is. It has told us that the society is interested in ophthalmology, the society is interested in new drugs, but the name of the game is blindness. The name of the game is how to avoid blindness, how to avoid visual impairment, not only in the developed world, not only in the underdeveloped world, but in all the world. It’s important to consider the children, but it’s also very important to consider the elderly, and the Congress in São Paulo has shown us this.

The Congress in São Paulo has also shown us that the role of all of the supranational societies is very important. It’s up to the supranational societies to deal with each part of the world and again, act locally and develop the strategy together, so the International Council of Ophthalmology can think and take the whole world into consideration.

For more information:

Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, PhD, can be reached at Rua Augusta 2529, São Paulo, SP 01413-100 Brazil; +55-11-5085-2010; fax: +55-11-5573-4002; e-mail: clinbelf@uol.com.br.