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MEETING REPORT
24 th ESCRS Winter Meeting
M arrakech Building a bridge History was made in Marrakech, Morocco as the ESCRS convened its Winter Meeting outside of Europe for the first time
T
he 24th ESCRS Winter Meeting attracted more than 1,970 delegates from 78 different countries, including more than 700 delegates from the host country Morocco. “We are delighted to be holding our Meeting on the African continent for the first time and to be joined by our colleagues from SAMIR, the Moroccan Society of Implant & Refractive Surgery,” said Professor Rudy MMA Nuijts, President, ESCRS. “Our past President Professor Béatrice Cochener-Lamard is to be congratulated for taking this initiative to be the bridge between European and African ophthalmology,” said Prof Nuijts. “SAMIR and the Pan Arab Refractive Council have made a significant contribution to the scientific programme and I would like to thank all involved for their time and support. I would also like to thank the SAMIR President, Dr Abdelfettah Benkirane, and Professor Mouhcine El Bakkali for their continuous efforts and valued support,” he said. The scientific programme was very well attended with highlights including Cornea Day, organised in conjunction with EuCornea, the Young Ophthalmologists Programme and didactic courses in Cornea, Basic Optics, Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the ESONT Didactic EUROTIMES | APRIL 2020
SAMIR President Abdelfettah Benkirane, ESCRS past President Béatrice Cochener-Lamard, ESCRS President Rudy MMA Nuijts, and SAMIR past President Dr Mouhcine El Bakkali at the 24th ESCRS Winter Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco
Day, organised by the European Society of Ophthalmic Nurses and Technicians. Other highlights included four Main Symposia, a range of Surgical Skills Training Courses, Instructional Courses, Free Paper and Moderated Poster Sessions, and a Near Live Surgery Session organised by SAMIR, and Symposia organised by SAMIR and the Pan Arab Refractive Council.
POSTER PRIZES A prize of €1,000 was awarded for the Meeting’s best Cataract and Refractive Poster presentations. The prize in the Refractive category went to Emilio Torres-Netto, Switzerland, for his poster ‘Stromal bed smoothness after excimer laser surface ablation as a key element for the expression of inflammatory genes’. The prize in the Cataract category went to Chaimae Khodriss, Morocco, for her poster ‘When we forget the
essentials: About an unexpected corneal complication of cataract surgery’.
CASE PRESENTATIONS The best cases in each of the four sections of the ESCRS/EuCornea Cornea Day were awarded with a certificate for their winning case presentations.These were Mounia Ait Al Jazzar, Myrsini Petrelli, Prateek Agarwal and Nienke Visser. “With so much on offer, it would have been impossible to attend every session. However, if you log on to the Education Portal on the ESCRS website, you can access the sessions and didactic courses on ESCRS On Demand and ESCRS iLearn, as well as discover a wide range of video content and other materials. “I hope you found the Meeting beneficial and rewarding, and I look forward to seeing you in Amsterdam at the 38th Congress of the ESCRS in October,” said Prof Nuijts.
