Pretty soon it’s going to be the 9th of October, and a quick Wikipedia search will tell you of how this day in history has seen the founding of the Kingdom of Valencia, the initial whispers of the Prague Astronomical Clock, and the Milky Way’s most recent exploding sun, Kepler’s Supernova. What is doesn’t mention is that it’s also the first day of the UKEGS 2024 conference, which runs until the end of the following day (10th). We’ll deal with Wikipedia’s negligence; you get yourself a ticket to the meeting.
Remember: Membership to UKEGS is free, but it is essential in order to attend the conference, so complete a membership form before purchasing your conference ticket.
LOCATION
Address: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH
Venue contact: +44 (0)300 131 2321
EYE NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
With Nishani Amerasinghe as your host, and Eye News as your town crier, you’re in good hands this year. Now, we fully expect you to be enjoying the programme in its entirety, but if you have a lot of commitments to juggle, we’ve listed some sessions we wholly recommend you attend. The full programme is available here.
WHAT’S ON: Day 1: Wednesday 9/10
Session 1: Five Nations – Regional cases from across the UK & Eire evaluated by an expert panel
- 09:10–09:25: 'Scotland – Just Stop Oil' by Andrew Tatham
Session 2: Investigations and innovations in clinic
- 11:15–11:35: 'Harnessing AS-OCT for enhanced diagnosis & management of glaucoma' by Neeru Vallabh
Session 2(b): Glaucoma in underserved communities
- 12:05–12:25: 'Prisms in prison' by Mark Doherty
Session 3(a): The Hitchings Lecture: 14:15–15:05: Tin Aung from Singapore will deliver this year’s Hitchings Lecture, in the name of one of UKEGS’ founders, covering 'Recent advances in our understanding and management of angle closure glaucoma'
Session 4(a) Neuroprotection: The importance of prevention
- 16:05–16:20: 'The future of neuroprotection in glaucoma' by Tasneem Zainab Khatib
Session 4(b): How Do I? Wisdom from the Experts: 16:45–17:45: Expertise shared by Anthony King, Dan Lindfield, Keith Barton, Leon Au, Jim Kirwan and Winnie Nolan, covering repairing leaking blebs, aqueous misdirection, relocating the tube to protect the cornea, and more.
THE GALA DINNER
One of the great things about conferences of this size and importance is they tend to come with lots of food! UKEGS is no exception, and they will be hosting a Gala dinner in the event of the first day. Food, drink and awkward consultant-style dancing will be taking place at the Harbour Hotel, which is perfectly located just a few minutes’ walk from the conference centre.
Tickets are already being snapped up fast, so to grab yours, email ukegs@glaucoma.uk and they will provide you with a link to purchase a ticket.
WHAT’S ON: Day 2: Thursday 10/10
08:00: Training Forum: What is your dream Consultant Job and How to get it?: For early career delegates, this session from Gok Ratnarajan offers wisdom on obtaining one’s first consultant role. Breakfast refreshments will be available to enjoy during the session.
Session 5(a): Surgery in action
- 09:00–09:20: 'MIGS in my practice' by Professor Gus Gazzard
- 09:20–09:40: 'MIBS in my practice' by Professor Sheng Lim
The Great Debate: This house believes MIGS should be implant free: 11:20–11:45: Featuring insights from both 'for' and 'against' votes, hosted by Nishani Amerasinghe.
Session 6: Patients first
- 11:45–12:05: 'Human factors in ophthalmology' by Christina Rennie
- 12:40–12:50: 'Very bovvered! Can I have a G&T...?' by Joanne Creighton
Session 7(a): AI – Seeing the future?
- 14:25–14:50: 'Large language models (LLMs) in glaucoma care' by Sameer Trikha
Session 7(b): Different Glaucomas – The unusual that’s usual: 15:15–16:15: Mary Qiu delivers this session on angle status in neovascular glaucoma. Harry Petrushkin talks about uveitis and its connection to glaucoma. Eleni Nikita speaks about paediatric patients growing up with a session on The Inbetweeners.
Final session: 17:05–17:15: Questions, prizes, poster awards, UKEGS research grants and, of course, the final presidential handover take place at the end of the second day, rounding off what is set to be an incredible conference.
AN INTRODUCTION FROM UKEGS PRESIDENT, NISHANI AMERASINGHE
“I am delighted to be hosting the UKEGS conference in Southampton this year as a face-to-face event. Entitled ‘State of the Nation: Glaucoma in Practice Today and Tomorrow’, the conference aims to give clinicians specialising in glaucoma practical pearls that they can take away and use in their everyday practice.
“We have a stellar lineup of the glaucoma greats and rising stars from all around the UK and Éire covering all aspects of glaucoma. We are also honoured to have three fantastic international speakers who are experts in their field.
“Luis Pinto is the Head of the Glaucoma Clinic at Lisbon North University Hospital Centre and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Faculty of Medicine, Lisbon University, Portugal. He is also Vice President of the European Glaucoma Society (EGS). The EGS has recently produced a fantastic guide on surgical innovation in glaucoma.
“Luis is well-placed to give us fascinating insights into EGS guidelines and how they can be applied in everyday practice. The presentation will be on the second day of the conference in the surgical session.
“Another international speaker that we are thrilled to have present is Mary Qiu, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Chicago. Mary’s clinical practice focuses on the surgical and medical management of complex glaucoma patients. She has a specialist clinical interest in neovascular glaucoma as well as tube revisions and exchanges. Her academic work is related to neovascular glaucoma, and we are so excited to have someone with such experience giving us a presentation on ‘The Angle status in Neovascular Glaucoma’. This is going to be a captivating and engrossing talk and we are very much looking forward to hearing it. This talk will be part of the grand finale of the conference in the mid-afternoon session.
“Professor Roger Hitchings was one of the founders of UKEGS and the Keynote Hitchings Lecture has been given by a range of inspirational leaders. Professor Tin Aung is such a leader. He has more than 700 publications including in major publications such as JAMA and Lancet. He is a past president of the World Glaucoma Society, a board member of the Asian Pacific Glaucoma Society and President of the Asian Angle Closure Club. Tin’s interests include angle closure and glaucoma genetics. His talk, ‘Advances in our Management of Glaucoma’, will reflect Tin’s vast experience and generate a thought-provoking discourse when he delivers the UKEGS Hitchings Lecture in 2024.
“In addition to our great international speakers, we have an amazing lineup from the UK and Éire. There will be sessions on neuroprotection, artificial intelligence, patient safety and clinical dilemmas. Not forgetting ‘The Great Debate’, where the motion ‘This house believes that MIGS should be implant free’ will be battled out.
“This conference promises to be inspiring, stimulating and engrossing. Do join us at the National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, on 9 and 10 October. Tickets are available at www.glaucoma.uk/2024ukegs.
"The annual conference brings us all together, so this year we will have an opportunity to relax together with a Gala Dinner Dance celebrating the 50th Birthday of Glaucoma UK. There will be a welcome reception accompanied by sultry sounds of the saxophone played by the talented Mark Doherty, Glaucoma Consultant, Sunderland. Glaucoma patient and world-renowned Professor of Oceanography, Simon Josey, will continue the sustainability values of the conference and enlighten us on the Health of our Oceans. There will be some fund-raising activities in aid of Glaucoma UK. The dress code is Glaucoma Glam so hopefully people will don their finery for a night of fun."
EYE NEWS AT UKEGS 2024
We’ll be there a day ahead of you setting everything up and joining the other industry members and event organisers in welcoming you on the 9th. We’ll also be sending out our daily coverage eShots over the two days, highlighting the events of the day and filling everyone in on anything they may have missed.
There will be two friendly Eye News faces at UKEGS – myself, Samuel, who takes care of all editorial for the magazine. Come and find me if you want to talk about content going into the magazine. And you’ll find my colleague, Tom, who is our new mastermind of sales and advertising. Speak with him if you want to promote your products, courses, or… anything really. He’s nice.
WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?
Drop us an email if you’ll be in attendance and we’ll make sure we seek you out when we’re there.
Samuel – samuel@pinpoint-scotland.com
Tom – tom@pinpoint-scotland.com
