That time of year is coming around again and the ophthalmic community are ironing their ties and polishing their shoes ready for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ Annual #EyeConUK Congress 2025, taking place at the ACC, Liverpool, between 19–22 May.
As always, you will find us making our moves around the lectures halls and exhibition floor and, as always, there are numerous friends of Eye News contributing to the programme that we would like to highlight. But first, a little history lesson…
While the essence of the college has had several rooted forms since the late-19th Century, its presence as an institution has been solidified since the late 80s. What started out as a merging of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, setup in 1890 by Sir William Bowman, and The Faculty of Ophthalmologists, founded by Sir Stewart Duke Elder, is now a cornerstone of ophthalmic practice, guidance, and a driving force for policy development, locally and internationally.
As we enter the unified college’s 37th year, we look forward, as ever, to the next benchmark of medical science. Where will it come from? What will it do? What are we about to learn? So much pioneering research has been presented at these annual congresses, and the answers to these questions often change depending on what seat you’re in. There is a guarantee, however, that progress is taking place, and new avenues of research are being illuminated and travelled through.
Onto the programme, we begin to see what these new achievements look like. It promises to be as packed as ever, with an emphasis on innovation, evolution, and touchpoints that span the entire specialty landscape. So, who are we excited to check out?
Monday 19 May
Opening with the President’s Session from Ben Burton and closing with several presentations covering cataracts, fungaemia, inequalities and modern developments, there will be something for everyone on day one. We, however, have our eyes fastened on two particular sessions:
- Nick Astbury and Cova Bascaran will be hosting the ‘Global challenges in diabetic retinopathy’ session, which will feature discussions on the challenges of providing sufficient diabetic retinopathy screening and treatment services around the world.
- The ‘UK Biobank Eye & Vision Consortium: Scientific Highlights and Implications for Clinical Practice’ session will feature several significant figures, including Siegfreid Wagner and Paul Foster, providing delegates with an updated overview of the cohort study’s development and results, and how these may be applied to our understanding and treatment of eye health and disease.
Tuesday 20 May
Again, day two will leave you wondering where to go next, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Starting early on Tuesday, our suggestion would be to kick off with:
- ‘Shaping the future of Ophthalmology research- empowering through NIHR support’ which sets out the aims for the vision for future research within ophthalmology. Presenting during this session will more ‘heavy hitters’ such as Profs Faruque Ghanchi and Richard Gale, Caroline Wroe, and both Profs Pearse Keane and Susan Molan discussing MedTech research.
- Liz Tomlin, UKISOP’s Chair, will be talking about ‘Strabismus: Everything you always wanted to know’
- Tunde Peto is ‘Exploring new avenues for evaluating structure and function in neuro degenerative disease’ alongside Keir Yong and Imre Lengyel.
- Chaired by Ambreen Tunio, you’ll hear from Gwyn Williams and Prof Ben Burton, amongst others, on ‘Make or break cases – what would you do next?’
- And rounding things off, the ‘New in my practice’ symposium will “bring together experts to discuss new developments that they have been working with and included in their work” through the experiences of Profs Susan Mollan, Rohit Shetly, Mariya Moosajee, and more.
The cèilidh makes a return!
Oh yes, we've got another cèilidh on our hands at #EyeConUK 2025 and if we managed to pull off a good one in Belfast, I'm certain we can do the same in Liverpool! You can book your place at the event when registering your attendance to the congress, and tickets cost £55 per person. We'll see you on the dance floor!
Wednesday 21 May
The third day of Congress maintains an impressive line-up of speakers delving into subjects such as debates in neuro ophthalmology, the ‘Eyecare professionals symposium’, robot ophthalmologists, and mastering cataract surgery. On our to do list, we have:
- The ‘Patient Safety Incident Response Framework: A framework for learning and Improvement’, featuring our Wellbeing guest editor, Christina Rennie, alongside Clare Cox, Anna Grabowska , Mark Turnball and Radhika Krishnan.
- Leading us into lunch will be our Medico-legal Section Editor, Amar Alwitry, alongside Prof Charles Claoue and Sean Doherty, offering the ‘Medico-legal session’ which aims to “highlight pertinent issues which will help protect patients and clinicians.”
- ‘Mastering the modern paediatric ophthalmology examination’ will be explored by Chair Damien Yeo and features speakers such as Sohaib Rufai on ‘Handheld OCT for paediatric research’ and Patrick Watts on ‘The use of the Retcam in paediatric ophthalmology’, amongst others.
- And wrapping up the penultimate day for us will be ‘Retinal Imaging – An update and top tips on getting the most out of modern retinal imaging’, with a presentation from previous Eye News Editor, Tariq Aslam, covering ‘OCT A and widefield OCT A – an approach to interpreting correctly’.
Thursday 22 May
The last day of Congress will see the regular ‘Days’ taking place, focusing respectively on Retina, Glaucoma, Neuro ophthalmology, and paediatrics. Check out the main programme here for more information on these and all of the above.
UKISCRS C&C Day
You may have noticed that while the #EyeConUK Annual Congress is taking place, a little further down the road there will be the UKISCRS Cornea & Cataract Day, featuring its own wonderful host of speakers and subjects. Follow our daily eShots in May to receive on-the-day coverage of this event.
You read it here: we’ll be running our fourth edition of the #AspireOphth competition, in which entrants have the opportunity to share an image which accurately reflects their aspirations in ophthalmology. Two winning entries will be picked during our time at Congress and winners will each receive a copy of Sohiab Rufai’s essentially textbook, MCQs for FRCOphth Part 1 (2023), which features 450 MCQs spread evenly across five sections, with detailed solutions and explanations, helpful figures, as well as three mock exams, and further reading to aid self-assessment. Keep an eye on our social media coverage for updates about the terms and conditions and get your cameras ready!
