The day before Winter ESCRS, I came as close to gods as I’ve ever been.
I passed by the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I visited the Parthenon, dedicated to the god Athena Parthenos. And from Lycabettus Hill, I could see the Aegean Sea, presided over by Athena’s nemesis Poseidon, god of the sea (and also storms, earthquakes and horses).
Back at Winter ESCRS, even mere mortals seemed larger than life.
Given massive city protests outside, we pivoted to holding our Athens City Walk indoors instead, as an Athens City Experience.
With everything cobbled together last minute, it was as if a deus ex machina appeared to save the day, bringing forth Dr. David Chang, past president of ASCRS, Dr. Filomena Ribeiro, current president of ESCRS, Dr. Burkhard Dick, president-elect of ESCRS, and others.
It was quite the brouhaha of ophthalmic knowledge and experience, and we were fortunate to have such an incredible silver lining appear.
The protests also certainly did not stop ophthalmic luminaries from appearing at Winter ESCRS, and so what follows is not the stuff of Greek myths, but human legends.
1. Dr. Ioannis Pallikaris
It’s worth repeating, so I’ll let my post do the talking….
Meanwhile, via WhatsApp (I can’t believe we are on WhatsApp together!), Ioannis commented:
“Nice Jacket!! Thank you. If you have a summer dress, come to Aegean Cornea.”
That’s June 26-29 in Creete, at the exquisite Elounda Bay Palace Hotel. Check it out. It looks beautiful, and they will be celebrating 35 years of LASIK innovation. https://www.aegeancornea.com/
2. Dr. David Chang
“The Greeks were known for debates, and welcoming and being tolerant of multiple opinions,” Dr. Chang said during the Athens City Experience, co-hosted by ESCRS and Media MICE. “It’s kind of a good reminder to come back here and to realize what makes a great society and a great civilization is being open.”
That’s an incredible summary both given the current global political climate, as well as the continued progression of societies like the ESCRS, ASCRS and others.
It was also exactly why we hosted the experience—to bring learnings from ancient Greece (and indeed a local tour guide started off with sharing knowledge on this subject) back to relevance in our field.
This, by the way, was not pre-planned. David took to the roundtable extemporaneously, becoming a part of what was essentially an agora, or place for assembly—formed as a result of the protests outside.
The consequential dialogue both among the panel and with the audience was an energy that I’ve not quite experienced before in a standard symposium, and is a reflection of why the ESCRS is so dynamic. They have their finger on the pulse of what a modern ophthalmic congress is, and what makes it come alive. The ancient Greeks would have been proud.
3. Prof. Dr. Burkhard Dick
Really, the co-founder of the Athens City Experience was Burkhard, as we pivoted from the City Walk, which began in 2024 at Winter ESCRS in Frankfurt.
We were there with him and were so impressed by how he helped relate the early democratic beginnings in Germany—witnessed in Frankfurt—back to the democratic underpinnings of ESCRS, on a walking tour.
At Media MICE, we thought to help repeat that this year in Athens along with organizational support, but the protests stymied our efforts. Undeterred, we all pressed on— along with Miss Artemis Matsou—to convert the Athens City Walk into the Athens City Experience.
While it would have been nice to take in the Athens city views while again talking about the parallels between ancient Greek democracy and modern ESCRS inclusiveness, we more than settled for an exquisite outcome at the Athens City Experience indoors.
The ad hoc panel participants like David, who otherwise might not have made the bus to the walk, more than made up for intellectual considerations. And indeed, the “agora” effect – audience participation among doctors, industry and allied health – meant inclusiveness came alive right before us.
4. Miss Artemis Matsou
The Athens City Walk originally had been put together by Artemis, a native of Greece, though now working as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in the UK at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Artemis clearly has maintained ties to her homeland, as the visit locations mentioned informed an informal walk myself and producer Chris McBride took the day before the protests began.
We decided to follow her route to take in context for the Athens City Experience, and grab some B-roll for our upcoming video coverage on all of this.
Major stops of course included the Acropolis and Parthenon, and I explained some of my thoughts on those here:
During the Athens City Experience, Artemis—an ESCRS committee member—also emphasized: “Innovation comes where there is an open-minded people, and there is an open dialogue, and people come forward with their ideas and share them. To have that option nowadays in science, I think that’s extremely important.”
4. Prof. Oliver Findl
Oliver, his wife Christine Findl-Reiffenstuhl, and I went for two days of serious skiing in Austria after Winter ESCRS, and it was there that I also learned more on his interest about the influence of posterior vitreous detachment on retinal detachment after lens surgery in myopic eyes.
That’s a mouthful, but so is MYOPRED, the name of the study he is leading on the subject. Given my passion for adventure sports, but being a -2.5 myope in both eyes, I’m now firmly convinced not to ever have refractive lens exchange post-presbyopia because of my risk of PVD.
I mean, once I get cataracts, I’d of course be ok with cataract surgery, because otherwise I’d have serious visual impairment. But with other options on the market other than RLE post-presbyopia, I’d look elsewhere.
Oliver and his wife—both former ski instructors—gave some great carving tips as we skied on-and-off piste—and I also appreciated the post-presbyopia visual tips along the way.
Plus, well, we enjoyed Austrian Carnival together. Talk about something to retain the best quality of vision to behold. Just stunning.
5. Team Tarsus
Tarsus is breaching the European market, and for good reason.
“Tiny mites are causing big problems,” a Tarsus brochure distributed at Winter ESCRS exclaimed. “DB [Demodex blepharitis] is caused by an infestation of the Demodex mites, the most common ectoparasite found on human skin.”
In 2023, CAKE Magazine ran an editorial article entitled: “XDEMVY vs. Tea Tree Oil: A closer look at Demodex blepharitis solutions.”
See here: https://cakemagazine.org/a-closer-look-at-demodex-blepharitis-solutions/
Thousands of people read that article, and clearly, even though the product is not yet approved in Europe, the market could be ripe.
It was great seeing Maaza Martin and Pamela Annaki, of Tarsus, who are spearheading efforts to make DB a thing of the past in Europe.
6. Dr. Filomena Ribeiro
This was the last Winter ESCRS that Filomena will preside over as president before handing off to President-Elect Burkhard Dick in 2026. She was true to form, supporting multiple sessions, including a BoSS Speed Mentoring Session.
BoSS, once again, stands for Building Our Sustainable Society
“ESCRS is dedicated to creating an environment where everyone – members, staff, and industry partners feel that they are part of an inclusive and open culture,” according to ESCRS. “Join ESCRS in being a part of BoSS, together we can belong, feel ownership, and shape the future, to create a better world for future generations, a world free from conscious and unconscious bias.”
I, for one, think Filomena has done an outstanding job supporting inclusiveness during her tenure, and for her role to come full circle at democratic Greece—both ancient and modern— was fully appropriate.
7. Domenic von Planta
Domenic, CEO of Schwind eye-tech-solutions, invited me to what was going to be a special dinner evening with his distributors in Athens.
Domenic and I have had a special history with dinners. We once spent Valentine’s evening together at a conference, when we were away from our wives. That was a pretty funny evening.
So I was saddened to have to tell Domenic I wasn’t going to be able to make it after all, as we were advised by local Greek associates not to go out in Athens the night of the massive protests.
In the end, I missed a nice dinner, evinced by the dessert pic Domenic sent me via WhatsApp. Here is “strained yogurt” (which in Germany and other places is known as Greek yoghurt) with fruit and honey, a typical dessert in Athens.
With hindsight being 20/20 and knowing all the dinner attendees were fine, I should have gone!
8. Lionel Iribarne
Lionel, VP Marketing & Business Development, Visionix, met my colleague Brandon Winkeler during the Athens City Experience.
Again, it was impressive how that little event brought about new partnerships and opportunities.
We since had a nice talk with Lionel, clearly a great guy, and his colleagues.
You may know Visionix by other names – formerly Luneau Technology, and also Optovue. The company works in ophthalmology, optometry and optical industries. Products range from OCT to autorefractometers to slit lamps. You should be hearing more about this well positioned company in the future, so keep an eye out….
9. Prof. Thomas Kohnen
Thomas shared that he is about to reveal some new research breakthroughs at ASCRS in Los Angeles on astigmatism, and we are intrigued. We’ll be on site there to report fully.
This is why every conference touch point is so critical. By continuing to meet up with friends and associates, we all can feel the pulse of our industry.
So while Winter ESCRS had a cornucopia of on site topics to cover, it also serves as a critical nodule in world connections. At the center of Europe, you can be exposed to not only European, but also Asian and American ophthalmology happenings.
In this case, we know something hot is about to be revealed at ASCRS that our community should know about.
In fact, it is through the ESCRS leadership that I found out the International Intra-Ocular Implant Club (IIIC) meeting is happening next year in Hanoi, Vietnam, and we at Media MICE look forward to that very much.
10. Fanis Arampatzis
Fanis, who is with surgical medical marketing at SIFI, was a pleasure to speak to in Athens because he is from Greece.
I always enjoy getting the perspectives of locals, who this time did a really good job warming delegates to be careful on the night of the citywide protests.
Other than that, Fanis sent me to the best local place to get my favorite dishes — spanakopita and tiropita.
He represents SIFI very well, which is making waves in Europe and beyond in ophthalmology.
Last August, SIFI received European Commission approval for AKANTIOR, the first and only approved drug in Europe for acanthamoeba keratitis in adults and children, 12 and older. Well done!
11. Dr. David Lockington
David is used to hamming it up at major conferences worldwide. But it’s different now that he’s president of UKISCRS. Actually, it isn’t. He’s the same. You’ll probably either like or hate his humor.
If you like it, then you’d probably have a great time together at dinner — which we did at the President’s Dinner at Winter ESCRS—along with what appeared to be his strong fan base. Either that or they were doctors he paid off. Some kind of dishonorarium, if you will.
If you don’t like his humor, well you haven’t made it this far down in my article either, so I don’t need to address that.
Here here, David. Keep the funny times going.
And remember UKISCRS has more meetings than just the main annual. The next is Cornea & Cataract Day, 19 of May, in Liverpool. Worth a look.
12. Dr. Apostolos Lazaridis
Some KOLs are rock stars, though they may not look like it. But Apostolos actually looks like a rock star, and surely is an influencer on the rise.
I looked up some papers he was involved with, like….
“The impact of perinatal brain injury on retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and optic nerve head parameters of premature children,”
and…
“Refractive lenticule transplantation for correction of iatrogenic hyperopia and high astigmatism after LASIK.”
Interesting stuff. Not the usual peer-reviewed fodder.
Congrats Apostolos. Interesting work, and keep in touch!
13. Ahmed ElGhandour
Ahmed had me at ‘old funky jacket selfie’.
I tell you, I love this move.
Someone I haven’t seen in ages comes out of the conference woodwork, flips out their phone without saying much at all, turns it around…and there we are together— me funky jacketed of course—in a conference selfie from years ago.
These delegates always brim with enthusiasm, because they know what’s coming up next…another funky jacket conference selfie together.
Someone must hold the record for most archived photos. And also the record for most shares with family members, as I hear this is a thing also.
I’m confident some youngster in a place like Nepal has a photo archive of some random guy in funky jackets over a decade, sent by his doc dad or mom.
This one shows a time when I not only did funky jackets, but entire costumes (this being Mozart), which still wasn’t enough as I also had brought a cowbell to ring throughout the halls of ESCRS 2018 in Vienna.
Great, then, that Ahmed was such a good sport. He is also senior manager of HCP education and KOL management for Alcon in Europe. That means he’s heavily involved in the Alcon Experience Center in Barcelona, where he himself wore a funky jacket in this post.
Ahh, to be co-opted by industry. That day certainly has come and gone already. Don’t mind!
14. Sean Henahan
I appreciated a very nice compliment from Sean, editor-in-chief of EuroTimes, during the President’s Dinner. He mentioned he has sought to up his style game, based on my “Versace”- style jackets.
Sean, I have to say, you are looking incredibly debonair with your turtleneck and jacket. Kind of post-Jobsean, if I can say so.
We are enjoying our combined coverage efforts so far, such as of the ESCRS Heritage Interview with Dr. Ioannis Pallikaris, the father of LASIK.
Check it out—Sean as host- and interviewee-extraordinaire (providing some fantastic context), and Media MICE on the cameras: HERE
Stay tuned for more collabs in the future with legendary editor Sean, and now also, urbane legend, so to speak. Cheers Sean!
And that’s a wrap for my Winter ESCRS written roundup.
Phew, just in time, as quite literally I’m on the plane to India for APAO in New Delhi.
It’s going to be a hot one, I hear, so I brought my Hawaiian shirts from Hawaiian Eye, just in case the jackets themselves start to sweat.
So as for some of m’eye friends, see you in just a moment, in India! Otherwise, next at ASCRS in LA also this month!
