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by Paul Rosen FRCS, FRCOphth
Terry Waldock is well known to many ophthalmologists throughout the world in his role as CEO of Duckworth and Kent. He describes how the company has evolved from its secret origins in the 1950's, to providing sophisticated (as distinct from high-tech) instruments designed by. and for, an international group of eye surgeons on both sides of the Atlantic. Emmanuel Rosen's article emphasizes how a simple clinical observation, pupil size, may require sophisticated equipment for measurement. In turn this simple observation is very important in determining the success of a technology intensive procedure, Lasik. Prof Colin's prismatic piggyback IOL is an excellent example of the application of simple optics to a new device which potentially may improve the visual functioning of very many patients with AMD. Similarly the Perfect Pupil PP7O is also a simple device but its use may reflect the difference in surgical philosophy between the USA and Europe: I would guess that many European surgeons would have to "make do" with iris stretching for small pupil cataract surgery. At a more fundamental level Dodick and Power look at the method of training ophthalmologists in the USA and Ireland. It is a contrast between the regimented, all encompassing system in the USA and the much longer "apprentice style" method in Ireland and until recently in the UK. It is interesting to note that the UK, as well as many other countries in Europe, are moving toward an American style Residency: which is better and when will we find out?
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This
issue of EuroTimes heralds the start of a new partnership with Eyeworld,
the news magazine of the ASCRS. This will take the form of publishing
selected articles concurrently and will emphasise the transatlantic
interface in Ophthalmology. Each continent develops technological
and clinical innovation in its own way and we are now able to share
more directly in these developments. Several articles in this month's
issue of EuroTimes illustrate this ranging from the low to high-tech.
