This year’s Congress was, as they tend to be, busied by Linda shaking hands and working around the exhibition hall, and myself popping in and out of sessions, and discussing potential articles with delegates. It was great to see so many familiar faces, so, what were we up to from the break of dawn?
Check out our newsletter from Day 1 of Congress.
The President’s Session was the first of the day, chaired by Ben Burton. After a brief introduction, we heard from John Doris, President of the Irish College of Ophthalmologists, who took us on a ‘deep-dive’ journey through the Irish ophthalmology landscape, from state-funded healthcare services established in 1948 through to the (surprisingly) recent national Health Service Executive established in January 2005.
As with anything operating on such a large scale, it holds far-reaching, ambitious objectives, and is active in tackling the types of issues that are felt across Ireland’s neighbouring countries, too, such as population increase (creating demand) and an ageing population (even further demand). Overcoming these challenges will of course become another stitch and achievement in the incredibly rich tapestry of Ireland’s history, and it was insightful to receive a snapshot of this as part of the opening session of the day.
Have you heard of the Belfast Eye Conference?
We had a lovely chat with Michael Williams who filled us in on the upcoming virtual event taking place 22–23 June, and how it has had great success in the past amongst medical students and FY trainees looking to progress in their ophthalmic careers. For more information, check out this link.
The afternoon sessions were superb!
I was lucky straight off the bat to be able to attend the ‘Breaking the glass ceiling’ symposium, chaired by Miss Pei-Fen Lin and Rashmi Mathew. This session, featuring presentations from both chairs as well as Temilade Adewoyin and Dame Carrie MacEwan, zoomed in on the roles and contextual positioning of women in the HCP workforce.
Up first, Rashmi’s talk discussed the “leaking pipeline of medical women in senior leadership roles”, an expansive topic which foregrounds some pretty daunting data, such as the current 18.9% gender pay gap in medicine.
Next, Pei-Fen turned out attention to FemTech (technology designed for female health), and while the majority of FemTech companies have female founders, they are less likely than men to secure VC funding.
Temilade followed by presenting further statistics outlining ethnic disparities in the NHS workforce and surfaced an interesting similarity between the conversion percentages of both women and BAME trainees through to consultant and leadership positions.
Echoing that tone, Dame Carrie MacEwan then progressed the symposium with an insightful talk, pulling from her own experiences, which navigated a pathway to and through leadership, and the many necessary benefits that a diverse and varied workforce is key to ensuring. The talks were wrapped up with a great Q&A, in which Pei-Fen delivered a powerful quotation for progress: “Fail fast. Fail often. Fail forward.”
The Bowman Lecture: ‘A Tooth for an Eye’ by Christopher Liu
Christopher Liu’s contribution to the Bowman Lecture took a slightly more serious tone as one might expect from the ever-joyful Knight, as his attention was on disruption. Christopher offered delegates a comprehensive overview of Sir William Bowman’s life and contributions to ophthalmology, and how he believed him to be a disruptor – “someone who challenges convention, wisdom, breaks down barriers, and revolutionizes the way things are done.”
The 3D Slit-Lamp Grand Round
Co-chaired by friend of the magazine, Sunil Mamtora, along with Iain Livingstone, Rebecca Jones, and Michael Williams, this interactive slit-lamp session had the third dimension in sight. Bringing onstage patients for live consultations and slit-lamp examinations is always going to peak interest, but this session utilised Haag-Streit’s new 3D extension, leaving everyone in the audience with their ‘specks’ on and enthralled with the visuals being projected onto the big screen.
After the ICC closed its exhibition hall, we made our way over to the Heidelberg Engineering UK Masterclass event, which featured Professor Faruque Ghanchi, Tunde Peto, Ruth Hogg, Imre Lengyel discussing OCT and commercial research updates, and imaging dementia through the eye. Thank you to Tosh Vadhia and Tim Cole from Heidelberg for the invite.
Dinner with the ladies!
We had to leave early as we were due for another very important meeting: pizza with Lucie and Julie, the RCOphth’s Comms and Events Managers. One of the best things about working so closely with the RCOphth during their annual Congress is that we get to meet up with their lovely team (welcome aboard, Lucie!), and continues to echo the importance of close and friendly relationships with our ophthalmic neighbours. They and their incredible team put on an amazing few of days for all of us.
Check out our newsletter from Day 2 of Congress.
The second day started early for both of us, with Linda popping into the 08:00 ‘Cataract surgery training. Trainee & Trainer perspective’ session. It was great to see young and promising ophthalmology trainees take to the stage and introduce their work, hosted and introduced by the ever-supporting Qasim Mansoor. We were lucky to run into them the day before, discussing how our publication can help promote their work, and you can be sure that their names will feature in our future issues.
Meanwhile, I was upstairs
A parallel session was being hosted by the wonderful folk at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. With an incredible line up of speakers, bringing together a varied pool of international perspectives, I was privileged to sit in and listen to: John Nkurikiye, President of COECSA, discussing the organisation’s initiatives and objectives; Orapeleng Malemane, who provided an overview of eyecare in Zimbabwe and its partnership with VISION 2020 LINKS; Hazel Shillingford-Ricketts, who was the first and only ophthalmologist in Dominica (not Dominican Republic) for 21 years, and how AI has been utilised in the Caribbean Island for diabetic retinopathy; Tunde Peto and the impact of Northern Irish partnerships in Swaziland, Tanzania, and the need for open-minded and consistent support from visiting trainees and doctors; and last but not least, LSHTM’s Cova Bascaran, who explored the need for an equitably accessible AI presence in international eyecare, balanced of course by the need for diagnostic accuracy.
TAKE NOTE: The next COECSA meeting will be taking place in Zimbabwe during 21–23 August, in Victoria Falls – one incredible meeting and one World Wonder, what more could you want? For more information, visit here.
Before lunch, we ran into one of our favourite people
Christina Rennie, co-guest editor of our new wellbeing supplement, came over to join us for a coffee and as always, left us feeling energised and hopeful about the work ahead. Christina and I had a great talk about our next wellbeing edition, which will be released alongside our February/March 2025 issue. Watch this space!
Our afternoon was packed
After an incredible lunch of arancini, oriental-style salad and savoury pastries, we headed straight into the Asthon Lecture, ‘Can glaucoma be ‘cured’ by surgical and regenerative therapies’, delivered by Professor Sir Peng T Khaw. Well, without wanting to keep you waiting, Sir Khaw’s answer is “yes, we can cure glaucoma, but the question is for how many years?”
Introducing his session with a tribute to Norman Ashton, founder of Fight for Sight, Sir Khaw kicked off his topic with the importance of advocacy for vision, showing delegates how surveys have highlighted that sight is above all our most treasured sense.
Global ophthalmology
Continuing our international theme that had been woven throughout the second day, we managed to attend a segment from the ‘Global Ophthalmology’ session chaired by Matthew Burton and Mike Burdon. This absolutely stacked symposium brought with it a familiar face from the morning, John Nkurikiye, who participated in discussions on both ‘cataract training trial’ and ‘increasing eCSC in Rwanda: strategies and challenges’.
As with all content, both at meetings such as these but also in the articles we publish, we get excited – we get excited because we understand the far-reaching benefits of global partnerships. These partnerships are meeting points of many cultures and systems, and an understanding of these contexts is vital to ensure that any partnership is as productive and beneficial to all parties as can be. With this in mind, if you’re based in the UK or Ireland, check out some of the international speakers mentioned in this report and learn how you and your practice could benefit from establishing a dialogue.
We had a buddy all day
Paul Melone from the University of Edinburgh. Similar to last year’s RCOphth Congress, Paul helped us out all day with his camera, taking pictures and capturing video interviews with delegates and industry alike. Our luck doubled up when we also had a visit from our immediate past editor, Baljean Dhillon! These two are a power couple if there ever was one, and here is the fruit of their meeting!
Check out our newsletter from Day 3 of Congress.
The penultimate day of the RCOphth Annual Congress started off a little slow (for one of us). Why? The Ceilidh was an absolute success. We were treated to an array of great food and drinks, and delegates were swung and skipping about on the dance floor. What a great way to celebrate the Congress! A huge thank you is extended to Paul Mellone from the University of Edinburgh, who had been keeping us company for the previous two days and taking lots of snaps and videos of the Congress’ sessions and happenings.
Did you check out the posters?
There have been some incredible additions to this year’s selection of posters at the ICC. In particular, it was great to see Wenquian Wu and Christina Rennie for their contribution, focusing on collaborative, in-clinic support services for those suffering from sight loss. Sound in heart and agenda, the SLA programme has helped over 700 patients in its first two years and “mirrors the core move towards shared decision making, not only listening to the patient but understanding their needs and signposting where appropriate.”
Our #AspireOphth winners were crowned!
Our third #AspireOphth has come to close and we are incredibly excited to announce that Riddhi Shenoy and Tasneem Elghazali are the winners of the competition. Their prize? MCQs FOR FRCOphth PART I (2023) by Sohaib Rufai, the one-stop study companion for students sitting the Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists Part 1 examination, published by Oxford University Press. As it has been for the last three years, this competition is such an incredible way to connect with the ophthalmologists of tomorrow.
Nima, Nima, Nima.
You’re the best. If you, reader, haven’t heard yet – Nima Ghadiri is editing and heading up a new section in Eye News on the topic of oculomics. This exciting new field of study explores the role of the eye in relation to the rest of the body, establishing biological signifiers through imaging to help detect a huge range of pathologies. When you have downtime, check it out!
Handheld OCT with Sohiab Rufai and Mervyn Thomas
We felt lucky to be able to see Sohaib again as he co-chaired the ‘Handheld OCT: The State of the Art’ session alongside Mervyn Thomas. This incredible technological development has been a game changer in paediatric ophthalmology and widens accessibility and ease of OCT use.
This session featured Dr Mervyn Thomas discussing the use of handheld OCT in developmental disorders of the macula; Dr Zhanhan Tu exploring how handheld OCT can save lives: applications in retinoblastoma and cerebral malaria; handheld OCT of the optic nerve head is presented by Dr Sohaib Rufai; and last but not least, the ‘Handheld OCT: Grand Rounds’, hosted by Dr Helena Lee.
Trinidad, we love you!
We bumped into Franka Mohammad and Ronnie Bhola from Trinidad Eye Hospital and they might be the friendliest people we’ve met so far! They had an incredible session on ‘Reducing Cataract Surgery Backlogs In The Caribbean ’ and so we were pleased to discover their newsletter, InSight, which is a must-read for anyone involved in eyecare, in and outside of ophthalmology. Take a look at their current issue (5) and back catalogue here.
The one stop Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension update
Chaired by Professor Susan Mollan A/Professor Steffen Hamann, this session explored how to approach a person that presents with papilloedema, before discussing the spectrum of managing idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), for which the reduction of intracranial pressure is one of the key therapeutic aims. Steffen Hamman kicked the session off by moving through “the what, the why, and the how, of optic disc margin blurring” and placing importance on the use of OCT in clinical judgement.
Check out our newsletter from Day 4 of Congress.
As per usual, the last day of the Congress programme was populated by the Subspecialty Days in Retina, AI, Glaucoma and Cataract, along with an Eyecare Professionals Day. Each symposium was stacked with speakers including members of the Eye News family, such as our supplement guest editors, Andrew Tatham and Andrena McElvanney, Co-Editor David Lockington, and trusted supporters such as Rebecca Turner, Lorcan Butler, Tunde Peto, and former Eye News Co-Editor, Tariq Aslam. Another big thank you to all of the delegates and speakers who attended Congress – you, together with our industry friends, bring these meetings up to the exceptional quality they are known to have, and we’re incredibly grateful to be a part of it.
Are you an allied health professional or healthcare scientist?
It was lovely to run into UKISOP Chair, Rebecca Turner, in the morning of the last day before everything kicked off. Our Allied Health Professions section in the magazine has been re-energised recently, and we’ve been working closely with members of UKISOP to both promote their objectives as well as our magazine. They. Are. Incredible. And we whole-heartedly recommend you reach out to them for a chat to see what they’ve got coming up. Rebecca shared with us her thoughts on today’s professionals day:
Delighted to be in Belfast to speak at the Eyecare Professionals Day and I would really like to engage with eye professionals in Ireland, Scotland, Wales to get involved with the UKISOP Society and programme, and we would love to see people attend our meeting on the 28 November in London. If you would like to get involved, either with the programme or sponsorship opportunities, please do reach out to us via our website, and we look forward to seeing you in London!
Who else were we pleased to run into?
Our co-editor, David Lockington! It’s always a pleasure to meet with our editors during conferences and if we’re honest, it’s one of the highlights for us. David’s support for Eye News has been unwavering since before he started working with us, and it’s been incredible to see his progression as an educator and a surgeon every year.
NHS procurement frameworks
It was also great to see Hamza Hussain delivering “a primer on NHS procurement and the present and future role of frameworks for AI.” Hamza passed by our stand to say hello and discuss his session, and it was interesting to hear how the NHS Shared Business Services are trying to get the formational work into procurement frameworks to enable AI to be brought into our clinics correctly, and from secure, vetted sources.
Now that we're back in the warmth of Scotland, it's with fond memories that we look back at our recent time in Belfast. We look forward to following up with all the connections we made there and wish for an even bigger and better event next year.
Where will you next be able to catch us? We'll be heading down to the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress down in... you guessed it, Oxford! If you're in the area between 1-3 July, pop over and come to say hello!
