Closing Time at EURETINA 2024: Day 4 Wrap-up

It’s so long and farewell from the 24th Congress of the European Society of Retinal Specialists (EURETINA 2024). Here’s what we’ve covered on the Congress’ final day. 

The sun is setting in Barcelona, and the close of this year’s EURETINA Congress is upon us. 

Over the last four days, we’ve covered the most significant developments from the Congress, and there were plenty of them. From the blossoming role of artificial intelligence to new frontiers in surgical and medical retina—to a surprise mid-conference blow to complement inhibition in geographic atrophy (GA), there were plenty of fireworks to speak of in the City of Counts.

So without further ado, here’s what we have in our final EURETINA 2024 PIE Post.

Our cover story deals with a session on artificial intelligence—but not the kind years away from practice. In a session co chaired by EURETINA Board Member Prof. Martin Zinkernagel (Netherlands) and AI luminary Prof. Pearse Keane (UK), panelists explored how machine learning is coming into the clinic, and why the range of diseases we can treat with these technologies are broader than ever. 

Our other morning highlight session dealt with the opposite end of the innovation, as Retinal Medicine Clinical Research (RMCR) grant awardees were honored for their contributions pushing the boundaries of retinal medicine. Be sure to check out who won—and get a sneak peek at the future of the field in the process. 

We covered two drastically different morning sessions on EURETINA 2024’s final day—one on trailblazers pioneering new frontiers, and the other on those working on translating the innovations of the here and now into clinical practice.

The final session of this short Day 4 was about how we are moving forward in rare and inherited diseases. With limited funding and a relatively low patient pool, efficiency is at the core of solving these blinding diseases—and panelists including Prof. Bart Leroy (Belgium) discussed how these constraints can be navigated to help improve patient outcomes. 

And for our last article, we bring you one of the Congress’ most intriguing sessions—and it didn’t have anything to do with retina—or ophthalmology in general. Acclaimed author and neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield delivered this year’s Diversity Keynote on the nature of individuality—and why she believes aspects of the modern world pose an existential threat to it. 

And with that, the Media MICE editorial team is signing off here in Barcelona. Be sure to catch all of our previous issues to relive the best moments from EURETINA 2024—and see you next year in Paris. 

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.