The 24th Congress of the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA 2024) has officially hit full stride in Barcelona, with a noted increase in crowds on Day 2 attendees were treated to a slate of programs highlighting the most critical areas of investigation in retinal medicine.
On the rare occasion that members of the Media MICE newsroom and daily conference coverage team get a breather to chat, one topic—or wager—inevitably surfaces. Which day of an ophthalmic conference is the busiest?
Inevitably, the first and final days of a conference typically get the least votes, as travel and the inevitable associated delays take their toll. This leaves the middle days (or day, depending on length) as the most popular choice.
At EURETINA 2024, however, your correspondent bid on fools gold. Having attended many previous EURETINA Congresses, Day 1 crowds at this year’s edition seemed to be unassailably large.
Wrong, and cue ridicule by other members of the editorial staff. As the team strode into Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB) to tackle another day of bringing you this very edition of our PIE Post, the crush of a standing room-only crowd outside of the day’s earliest 8:30 am sessions told the true tale. This year’s EURETINA Congress 8,000-strong delegate count was out in full force, and early—and a round of beers for the team after our final issue on Sunday is the price of poor punting.
So without further ado, here’s the action we’re covering on what must be the busiest day of EURETINA ever, so strap in—there’s a lot to take in.
Early morning sessions
We covered two 8:30 am sessions this morning—and both on topics dominating the conversation in modern ophthalmology.
First, we bring you coverage on a session delving into barriers in AI in retina. As one of the first subspecialties to adopt artificial intelligence with fluid monitors, retinal medicine represents a well-explored playing field for this ubiquitous topic. In the session, world-famous experts tackled barriers facing further progress for AI in imaging and clinical practice—issues indicative of a mature technology whose nuanced difficulties are beginning to bubble to the surface.
Sustainability in ophthalmology is about saving the planet, but it’s also about the impact it has on people. Our second morning highlight session goes into this complex relationship, including the at-times antagonistic balance between saving the planet and providing acceptably safe standards of care. Mixed into this is the inevitable knock-on effects of sustainable practices on procedure cost, so you won’t want to miss what Dr. Redmer van Leeuwen (Netherlands), Dr. Vivek Dave (India) and more have to say on the topic—including how polar bears in Greenland need sustainable eye care in Europe more than ever.
From radiation to radical new drugs
Time is the great restrictor of all things, and in this case, the limiting factor forcing us into choosing a single afternoon highlight session for rapid coverage.
The topic was an intriguing one, however, in radiation retinopathy, an underexplored topic that could yield interesting insights that go far beyond this seemingly niche topic. From classifying the disease to detection biomarkers and treatment, there’s more to this session than you’d expect, so be sure to check out highlights from a session featuring Prof. Jens Kiilgaard (Denmark), Dr. Rana’a Al-Jamal (Finland) and more.
Unfortunately, we had to save the best for last—and that means some of the biggest sessions of the day in the Main Auditorium will be part of our post-show coverage. The ever-popular session on the latest clinical trials and late-breaking developments was simply too grande to get you before we went to press, so stay tuned for our channels for our coverage of that one—and a look at the future of promising drug targets in exudative retinal disease and beyond.
With September 20th quickly turning to September 21st here at the makeshift Media MICE newsroom in the suburb of Poblenou, it’s time now to go to press and prepare for another day of live coverage here in Barcelona. Thanks for reading, as always—and we’re more sure than ever that Day 3 will bring even more retinal revelations shaping the future of ophthalmology.
Editor’s Note: Reporting for this story took place at the 24th Congress of the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA 2024), held from 19-22 September in Barcelona, Spain.
