The word from the president

Since my last report on our site, innumerable events have taken place indicating the liveliness of our society.

- In March 2009 SOIE was asked to organize a one day SOIE uveitis course at the MEACO meeting in the Kingdom of Bahrein, March 25-29, 2009 with the participation of several SOIE members including Ahmed Abu-El-Azrar, Manabu Mochizuki, Moncef Khairallah, our Secretary General Piergiorgio Neri and myself.
We were astonished by the number of participants staying for the whole day which shows how much ophthalmologists in this part of the world also are interested in uveitis

- During the IOIS meeting in Prague, May 30-June, 2009, SOIE organized a special interest symposium (SIS) on the modern appraisal of Fuchs’ uveitis.

- At the 17th Congress of the European Ophthalmological (SOE), June 13-16, 2009 in Amsterdam, SOIE had the confirmation that its tutorial choice of practical information on inflammatory cases was the right one and should be pursued.
The title of the SIS was “fifteen top mistakes in the care of uveitis” and it attracted more than 400 participants so that we had to transfer our SIS to one of the main conference halls.

- At the 2009 EVER meeting, October 1-4 in Portoroz, Slovenia, SOIE presented an innovative SIS entitled “Ocular Inflammation and Infection, New Agents and Newly recognized Inflammatory Disease Patterns”.

- The third annual meeting 2009 of the SOIE took place in the Oasis of Tozeur in Tunisia perfectly organized by our local host Professor Moncef Khairallah with the help of our Tunisian administrative secretary Anouar Belkhodjia and resulted in a frank success with a participation of over 280 ophthalmologists, mainly from Tunisia but also from other Middle-eastern and European countries.
The scientific programme was very ambitious and stimulated lively discussions especially in the workshops. But what we will keep in our memories is the superb gala-dinner under the tents in the palm grove with expert belly-dancers maintaining a hot atmosphere.
The Tunesian Ophthalmological Society tried to organize since years their annual meeting in this far-off oasis but were unsuccessful, whereas SOIE succeeded to bring close to half of Tunesian ophthalmologists to Tozeur.

- The year 2010 was no less successful. One of the main accomplishments, without any doubt, was the participation of SOIE in the prestigious St.-Petersburg White Nights Congress, May 31 – June 4, 2010, organized by Professor Yuri Astakhov from St.-Petersburg Pavlov University.
SOIE organized the programme of the 4th and the 5th days of this Congress, the main annual event in Russia that this year attracted more than 1800 participants.

- In September, the fourth annual meeting 2010 of the SOIE was held in Bad Blumau, Styria, Austria, September 15-18, 2010.
It was organized by Professors Gerhild Wildner and Stefan Thurau with a quasi Prussian rigor and precision and gathered more than 90 uveitis aficionados that could enjoy a vast array of uveitis presentations and posters. The general assembly was held during the meeting.

- At the 2010 EVER meeting, Crete, October 6-10, 2010, the SOIE SIS had the same “problem” as at the SOE Congress in 2009: the room was again too small and chairs had to be brought in to try to seat most of the participants.
The SIS was chaired by our vice-president Professor Ilknur Tugal-Tutkun and our secretary general Piergiorgio Neri and was entitled “Uveitis : how can we learn from our mistakes”.

At the end of the year 2010, an International Ophthalmology issue entirely devoted to uveitis that was put together by SOIE members will be published.

As president, I can only say ”what an achievement”!! This only possible because it is a small society mostly based on friendship and disponibility. And the rhythm will not slow down for the next three years. As we are better known and more present with our educational project, new solicitations have been received.

- In 2011 a combined meeting with the Japanese Ocular Inflammation Society (JOIS) will be held on May 15-16, 2011.

- SOIE will again organize a SIS and a course during the SOE meeting in Geneva in June 2011.

We have been contacted by or are in discussion with the Lituanian Society of Ophthalnology and the Costarican Society of Ophthalmology to organize symposia-courses on uveitis.

In the first case this will probably be organized in 2011 whereas we will probably go to Costa Rica in 2012. In the Fall 2012, Alexander Assi will most probably organize a SOIE course-symposium in Beirut, Lebanon. Other projects that are less advanced but are possible include the Fyodorof Institute in Moscow and a SOIE course-symposium in Australia. We also proposed to the Algerian AOPA association to organize a SOIF course-symposium.
Other projects, even more bold and exciting, are in the pipeline but it is too early to mention them here. Beside these positive news, it must be said that the organization does not yet function impeccably and I must apologize for this. Some members did not receive our information mails regularly.
The hard copies of the journal “International Ophthalmnology” are not always reaching our members. At the general assembly our secretary general Piergiorgio Neri and myself made the promise to try to improve the functioning of the society. One of these measures is that you will receive the annual dues statements before the end of each year for the next year and dues should have been paid by January 15 each year, so that the list of members can be transmitted to Springer in order to hopefully have regular shipping of issues to our members.
I hope you will be happy to read these news of good health of our society.

With all my best regards,

Carl P. Herbort, MD, PD, fMER, FEBO

October 2010