A O S 2000

121

Editorial

XXXIV Nordic Congress of Ophthalmology

One hundred years have passed sincethe first Nordic Congress of Oph-

thalmology held in Stockholm, Sweden,in the year 1900. With the upcomingmeeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, we moveinto the second century of Nordic oph-thalmology congresses. The collabor-ation between Nordic colleagues has in-creasingly thrived throughout the 20thcentury through congresses, the Nordicophthalmological journal Acta Ophthal-mologica Scandinavica, and the co-oper-ation of the Nordic ophthalmological so-cieties in NOK (Nordisk OftalmologiskKomite). One could say that the collabor-ation of Nordic ophthalmologists restson three legs, namely, the journal, thecongresses, and NOK.

The ties between Acta Ophthalmo-logica Scandinavica and the Nordic meet-ings are now being strengthened. The ab-stracts for the last Nordic Congress inBergen, Norway, were published in ActaOphthalmologica and the abstracts forthe upcoming meeting in Reykjavik willbe published in the June issue of thejournal prior to the meeting itself. Thehighlight of this congress will be the in-auguration of the Acta OphthalmologicaLecture, a special honorary lecture to beheld by a prominent scientist in Nordicophthalmology. This honorary lecturewill also be published in the journal.

Co-operation between professional or-ganisations, journals and scientific con-ferences is well known in medicine, suchas The American Academy of Ophthal-mology, the journal Ophthalmology, andthe annual Academy meeting. There is nodoubt that American ophthalmologybenefits from the combined strength ofthis arrangement, that helps promote theinterests of the medical organisations andan interchange of scientific activity, the

establishment of continued educationprogrammes, as well as creating abroader forum for public information.

Combining forces, so to speak, is bene-ficial for large medical communities, but isa necessity for smaller communities inmedicine, e.g. ophthalmology. Regionalmeetings on general ophthalmology haveto compete with an ever-increasing supplyof international conferences on sub-spe-cialties within a field. Ophthalmologyjournals also face a challenge in main-taining and increasing their circulation inthe face of an onslaught of new publi-cations, all the while competing for thebest scientific papers. At the same time,the ophthalmological societies need to of-fer their members high-quality continuouseducation programmes, as well as repre-senting ophthalmology in the communityand influencing national health policies.This representation relies more than everon a scientific foundation of epidemiology,outcome research, and insight into thelatest advances in technology and medi-cine. The ophthalmological societies ofthe five Nordic countries, the scientificjournal, and the general ophthalmologymeetings each provide strength, serviceand a platform for each other. Closer tiesbetween them can only strengthen Nordicophthalmology.

The XXXIV Nordic Congress of Oph-thalmology will be held in Reykjavik onJune 18–21, 2000. This is the centennialanniversary of the Nordic congresses,and the focus of this meeting is to cel-ebrate Nordic ophthalmology and visionscience. The Congress will have highquality symposia on all major aspectswithin the field such as cataract surgery,glaucoma, macular disease, diabetes, re-fractive surgery, oncology, etc. The meet-ing will be highlighted by the first Acta

Ophthalmologica Lecture, as well as twospecial lectures given by prominent scien-tists within the community of ophthal-mology and vision science in the Nordiccountries. The scientific programme maybe the most extensive of any Nordicmeeting and the organisers expect a largenumber of participants. In addition tothe Nordic participants, we are expectingparticipants from the Baltic states, otherEuropean countries, North America, andeven as far as Australia. The meeting of-fers continuous education courses, serv-ing in particular ophthalmologists intraining. Special symposia will be held onlatest developments in treatment, in par-ticular for macular disease and glau-coma. These symposia will bring in lead-ing scientists from North America andEurope.

The organisers are putting special em-phasis on attracting young ophthalmol-ogists and ophthalmologists in trainingto the Congress, by awarding at least 40travel stipends. We would also like to asksenior Nordic ophthalmologists to en-courage their younger colleagues and stu-dents to attend, and to make every effortto enable them to go to the Congress.Every Nordic ophthalmologist should seethe Congress as a natural forum andmeeting place. If the success of the Nord-ic meetings is to continue into the nextcentury, the young colleagues must havean opportunity to take part.

We look forward to seeing all of you inReykjavik and hope that you will enjoythe meeting and the country.

Einar Stefansson, M.D., Ph.D.President of the CongressProfessor and Chairman of

OphthalmologyUniversity of Iceland, Reykjavik