SFO most international of national meetings

PARIS — The meeting of the French Society of Ophthalmology (SFO) is “the most international of national meetings,” society president Joseph Colin, MD, said in an interview with Ocular Surgery News.

“As a society, we have always been open to international membership, and had special relations with other French speaking countries, particularly of North Africa and of the Middle East. With this year’s meeting we have made a great effort to encourage foreign participation even further, and we have established new and stronger relationships with other national societies outside France,” he said.

A joint meeting with the European Society of Ophthalmology created the opportunity to concentrate in one session a series of top-quality presentations on a variety of topics. The European Symposium, on the other hand, confronted facts and opinion of British, French, German and Italian specialists on the medical treatment of age-related macular degeneration, and the Franco-Chilean symposium focused on the treatment of macular edema.

“We have also established new relationships with the American Academy of Ophthalmology which will lead to new common projects, among them the Franco-American meeting in Paris next year,” Prof. Colin said.

The newly-established International Council of the SFO “will have the task to facilitate the sometimes difficult problems of obtaining visas for our members to travel from these countries to France for meetings and other professional purposes,” Prof. Colin said.