June Editorial - Glaucoma Day

As the Chair and Co-Chair of the European Glaucoma Society (EGS) Programme Planning Committee, we are honoured to be invited to write the editorial for this issue of EuroTimes which has a special focus on glaucoma. These are very exciting times for the EGS as we prepare for the 7th ESCRS Glaucoma Day on Friday, 6 October in Lisbon, Portugal, immediately preceding the XXXV Congress of the ESCRS. Glaucoma Day is co-organised by the EGS and the ESCRS. For those of you not familiar with the EGS, let us give you a brief history. In 1978, Erik Greve sent a letter to Wolfgang Leydhecker proposing to set up a glaucoma society. Leydhecker contacted Jules Francois, then the president of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE). Representatives from many European countries were invited to come to Ghent, Belgium (where Francois lived and worked) and at that historical meeting in 1979 the EGS was finally founded. The first congress of the society took place in Brighton, UK in 1980. Our vision is that individuals with glaucoma should have the best possible well-being and minimal glaucoma-induced visual disability within an affordable healthcare system, and it is our aim to pave the way to better glaucoma care in Europe. EXCELLENT RELATIONS The EGS has always enjoyed excellent relations with the ESCRS and in September 2011 the EGS hosted the inaugural Glaucoma Day, immediately preceding the XXIX Congress of the ESCRS in Vienna, Austria. Glaucoma Day is now firmly established in the international ophthalmological calendar and we look forward to a very exciting programme when we meet this year in Lisbon. Our programme for Glaucoma Day is still in preparation but you can be assured that it will cover a comprehensive selection of the current hot topics in our field. Among various topics, the Glaucoma Day programme will focus on surgical management, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of alternative options including trabeculectomy, tubes and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). This is sure to be one of the hot topics during Glaucoma Day and we look forward to a lively and informative debate on the subject. We are always looking at new ways of promoting debate in glaucoma and we are also very pleased to see that EuroTimes is helping to drive this debate through its Eye Contact video interview series. The latest Eye Contact interview discusses individualised glaucoma management. http://player.escrs.org/eurotimes-eye-contact/individualised-glaucoma-management Comprehensive management of the glaucoma patient requires consideration not only of the intraocular pressure and visual fields, but also the patient’s age, risk factors and concomitant conditions that might affect decision-making. Ultimately, this means carefully tailoring care to the needs of each individual patient. In his Eye Contact interview Dr Keith Barton discusses current thinking in this important area. In the EGS, we are very fortunate to have access to some of the key international opinion leaders. See you in Lisbon! *Prof Fotis Topouzis is Chair of the EGS Programme Planning Committee *Prof Ingeborg Stalmans is Treasurer of the EGS and Co-Chair of the EGS Programme 
Planning Committee