State of the Art Refractive & Cataract Surgery Symposium – Chairman’s introduction
On June the 17th, Vision Surgery and Research Centre hosted the 16th Annual State of the Art Refractive & Cataract Surgery Symposium at the University of Hull Business School.
Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing you a series of articles covering some of the keynote presentations on topics such as complications in cataract surgery, new technology and controversies in cataract and laser eye surgery.
Milind Pande chaired the symposium, and here is his introduction:
Welcome to the XVI State of the Art Refractive & Cataract Surgery Symposium.
René Leriche (1879 -1955) a famous French surgeon said “Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery, where from time to time he goes to pray.” Complications are an integral part of a surgeon’s life. Awareness, anticipation and reflection are the keys to preventing, managing and learning from complications.
The first session of this year’s meeting is a visit to the cemetery of surgical complications in cataract surgery. The challenging cases session at the end will also bring out important aspects of complication management.
Our speciality is very comfortable with rapid technological change. Our challenge is to inform ourselves of the technological options, assess which options are relevant and implement these in our practice to provide real patient benefits.
The new technology symposium this year covers innovation in lens and corneal refractive surgery. Controversies are unresolved issues worth debating. The SMILE/LASIK debate and Femtosecond cataract surgery in the NHS are the issues we will explore at this meeting.
The second Bijayananda Patnaik Memorial lecture will be delivered by Professor Burkhard Dick from Germany. Burkhard is one of the most experienced Femtosecond Cataract surgeons worldwide and shares many of the high professional values epitomised by Dr Bijayananda Patnaik. Burkhard’s scientific work in this field is unmatched and we are indeed very honoured to have him deliver this year’s memorial lecture.
It is always a great pleasure to welcome our distinguished faculty to East Yorkshire. Burkhard Dick and Pascal Rozot are this year’s international faculty. Allon Barsam, Burkhard Dick, John Marshall, Mayank Nanavaty, Dan Reinstein, Pascal Rozot and Paul Ursell are all distinguished leaders in our profession. Their valuable contributions are much appreciated.
This meeting is unique in being free for all clinical delegates to attend. I would like to thank all our industry partners for their support. An Event App has been introduced this year. Please download it by searching for “XVI state of the art”. It may replace the meeting brochure in the future and your views on this issue will be much appreciated.
Thank you for attending and being a part of State of the Art Refractive and Cataract Surgery 2016.
Milind Pande
Chairman
Medical Director, Vision Surgery and Research Centre
Next in the series covering the State of the Art Refractive & Cataract Surgery Symposium are the faculty profiles.