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European Society of Ophthalmology celebrates 50th anniversary
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VIENNA — In recognition of today's fast-changing world, where ophthalmology has become a global profession, the European Society of Ophthalmology marked its 50th anniversary at its 2007 Jubilee Congress with the partnership of its major counterpart the American Academy of Ophthalmology — making the Jubilee Congress "a true joint SOE/AAO meeting," said Zdenek J. Gregor, president of the SOE.
During the opening ceremony, Dr. Gregor proudly welcomed the nearly 4,000 participants from 90 different countries. He also noted he was proud to present a scientific program that resulted from the active cooperation of more than 40 subspecialty societies and supranational organizations.
"This joint meeting is a wonderful opportunity for collaboration, across boundaries, to share our knowledge" with the common goal of "preventing and treating world vision problems," said C. Pat Wilkinson, MD, president of the AAO.
A special place in the program was given to debates on controversial topics and discussions specifically intended for younger ophthalmologists.
The SOE, Dr. Gregor said, has always had education among its priorities, and aside from organizing many educational courses, it provides younger colleagues with the opportunity to travel and access major teaching centers through 40 travel grants awarded annually.
The president of the national society of the host country, the Austrian Ophthalmologic Society, and the president of the International Council of Ophthalmology also spoke during the opening ceremony.
The 2007 Helmholtz Medal was awarded to José Cunha-Vaz, MD, "for his contribution, in a true renaissance fashion, to both posterior and anterior segment surgery," Dr. Gregor said.
In his lecture, Dr. Cunha-Vaz reminded the audience of how fundamental the invention of the ophthalmoscope was.
"That discovery, in 1851, opened the gate to seeing the fundus of the eye," Dr. Cunha-Vaz said. It was a giant step forward, with implications that, beyond ophthalmology, involve the prevention of coronary and heart diseases.
Since then, new and increasingly more sophisticated systems for fundus analysis have been developed. The latest, which he called multimodal macula mapping, integrates different technology-supported examinations such as retinography, fluorescein angiography, retinal leakage analysis, optical coherence tomography and multifocal electroretinogram to obtain "multimodal" readings of the anatomical and functional alterations of the retina.