I am Rashed Mustafa, a 33-years old ophthalmologist from Jordan. I heard about ESASO from my friend 2 years ago when I was a general ophthalmologist looking for a vitreoretinal fellowship position. He recommended ESASO as the most prestigious and the best organization in this field. I applied for the one-year fellowship program and I was interviewed in Lugano after which I was fortunate to get the position in the medical university of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.

During this fellowship, I have acquired an enormous amount of medical knowledge, surgical experience, and exposed to a cutting edge technology in the field. The hospital is equipped with high tech up to date devices and instruments, the team work spirit was amazing and one can see the close collaboration between anterior segment and posterior segments surgeons which leads to the best surgical outcome for the patients.   I had the pleasure to learn from best of the best and had a great opportunity to appreciate the importance of research and to be co-author in many published articles, to participate in courses and wet labs, to attend prestigious congresses and had the honor to be a speaker in some of them. I was also involved in the teaching process for medical students and ophthalmology residents.  Besides, I was privileged to meet some international figures who are well-known in their area of expertise.

I was lucky to meet amazing friends and great mentors, who were eager to teach and have created an attitude in my personality to work hard, to be innovative and to pursue self-learning. In addition, i was pleased to live in a European culture for one-year, during which i learnt a lot about people in this area in the world closely.

I am going back to Jordan to collaborate with my colleagues to treat patients, to share the experience with my peers and to teach the younger doctors. This experience was unbelievably worth living and sharing; it would have been impossible to attain without ESASO generous support.

My name is Eugenijus Žvykas, 31 year’s old ophthalmologist working in Panevėžys Republican Hospital, Lithuania.

I have found ESASO on internet after looking for the best options on how to learn to prevent complications and to cope with them during cataract surgery.
I have attended the “Basic Cataract and Intraocular Refractive Surgery” Module, which I found amazing in all the aspects. The half day-long theoretic lectures from leading specialist in the field, where active discussions took more time than the plain lecture. I was amazed by how many tips and tricks can be given during 5 days. Some of them have solved even the issues which I even have not noticed I have before. More then theory, I enjoyed the opportunity to have individual consultations during the wet and dry lab sessions, which was very valuable because the participants had very different experiences in cataract surgery. After the module, I feel a lot more confident during my daily surgeries. I would totally recommend it for everyone no matter what experience you have, you will improve in many ways.
I hope to come back to other subspeciality modules soon.

My name is Christoph Matthias Häusler.

I work in my private practice in Thun, Switzerland. I heard about the course from a colleague from Berne. She recommended it to me, as it is known for being very practical. That’s why I attended the basic cataract module in November 2019 in Lugano, Switzerland and I have to admit that the course was very useful for me and my surgical training. I was very happy with the flawless organization, interactive theory lessons, friendly and open minded co-students, the useful dry lab (Eyesi) and perfectly planned wetlab. It was interesting to try the different phaco machines and learn loads of tricks from different experts.
It was one of the best courses I have ever joined in my ophthalmic career.

My name is Ana Hervás Ontiveros,

I am a Spanish Ophthalmologist, currently working as Cornea and refractive surgery in Hospital La Fe and in Aiken clinic in Valencia (Spain).
I heard about ESASO from my colleagues in Spain and decided to attend the ESASO course about cornea and refractive surgery.
The module was perfect organized, and lectures given by all the doctors improved my understanding about cornea pathology and refractive surgery.
I consider the ESASO course programme as a great opportunity for young ophthalmologist to improve in our work and be able to specialize in a specific field.

My name is Agnieszka Dyrda and I am Polish, but all my ophthalmology career has been done in Spain where I did my Ophthalmology Specialization and Vitreoretinal Fellow. I work as a part of Vitreoretinal Department in Institut Català in Barcelona. My special area of interest is vitreoretinal surgery.

I heard about the ESASO courses from some colleagues and I got further information on the website. I attended the Intermediate-Advanced Surgical Retina in Lugano in June 2019. It was so well organized. We received high-quality lessons by internationally renowned teachers where we could exchange ideas, daily practice protocols and discuss clinical cases. I also enjoyed the relationship with the colleagues and the time we spent together.

Without doubt, it was a worthful experience which I would recommend to any of specialist who is interested in improving his theoretical and practical skills. This way we can raise our care of patients to a higher level.

I hope I can repeat this experience someday in the future.

I am Baiyrkhanova Almagul,

I work in clinic Burc medical Sema. I am 35, Kazakh, I live in Kazakhstan, Almaty.

For the first time I heard about ESASO from representative of Alcon. I have already attended Basic cataract module and Advanced retinal detachment module in June 2019. It was very very useful for my experience as a surgeon. I liked everything – organization, lectures, presentations, video, Drylab and Wetlab.

Except of all I have found a lot of new friends. I recommend all surgeons, a specially young ones, to attend ESASO modules. Next year I plan to attend Glaucoma module.

I am Silvia Méndez Martínez and I work as an associated professor at the University of Zaragoza and I am also part of the Medical Retina department of the Miguel Servet University Hospital in Spain. I heard about the ESASO courses from some colleagues and I got further information at the website. I attended the Medical Retina Module in Lugano in April 2018 and I was impressed by the high-quality lessons we received, with internationally renowned teachers and well organized schedules.

Furthermore, I had a golden opportunity attending the ESASO Observership Program at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Israel) with Prof. Anat Loewenstein as a tutor and all her huge and experienced retina team for a month. The experience was extremely rewarding, since I couldo improve my profesional background and knowledge in the field of medical and surgical retina, uveitis, retinal dystrophies and other retinal degenerative diseases and ophthalmic imaging, both with outstanding daily clinical sessions and in the eye clinic. Furthermore, I could closely observe all the clinical and technological research that takes place in this center.

However, without doubt, what I most appreciated and enjoyed was the exchange of ideas, daily practice protocols and discussion of clinical cases, and specially, the relationship with the colleagues who spend their time, effort and knowledge on me so that I could optimize my time in the department.

My name is Ina Malinouskaya. I work as Associate Professor at the ophthalmology department of Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Minsk, Belarus. I have got the information about ESASO courses from my colleagues and website.

I have great impressions of this course. The organization was perfect. It was possible for 3 days to join excellently equipped Wet-lab and Dry-lab with helpful and very pleasant staff. The video sessions were useful and lovely. Moreover the choice of the lecturers was wonderful because they were from a different European countries, so we have the possibility to learnt out professional peculiarities from each of them. The lecturers personalities allowed us to ask many questions, argue and joke. We were captured in the study during the day without wishing to leave.

I want especially thank Robert Rejdak and Matteo Forlini for useful communication with us, Zachariah R. Koshy for academic lecture, Cesare Mariotti and Fabio Patelli for controversial point and an extra lecture (AMD). I would like to thank our supervisor Fabiana for wonderful organization, approachable and kind.

The accommodation was very well located with nice breakfast not so far from the hospital.  Great lunch on the last floor of the hospital with medical staff with wonderful mountains view gave us a positive mood and relaxation between the lessons.

I would like to thank everyone from ESASO who made this valuable experience possible. I find this experience very important for my practice. This program improved my professional skills and allowed me to wide my professional network.

I appreciate the possibility to have this experience and would highly recommend this ESASO course to everybody interested in eye surgery.

My name is Marco Ferrise, I am a 31-year-old Ophthalmologist from Lamezia Terme (Italy), currently working mostly in the private sector and in my private practice.

I attended the 2019 ESASO Medical Retina module and I had an excellent experience, the information we received was the state of the art, and the lecturers were all eager to share their knowledge.

I wanna thank the organizers for their professionalism and effort.

I am looking forward for new opportunities with ESASO to further advance my knowledge and skills.

Thanks ESASO

My name is Dr. Evgeny Molokotin, MD. I am an ophthalmic surgeon from Russia, living in Almaty. I am 36 years old and I am Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Kazakh Medical University of Continuing Education. I am also a founder and owner of the EyeDoctor clinic in Almaty.

I’ve heard about ESASO from my colleges from Russia and immediately wanted to join them at the training course. I was pretty much convinced that the course will help in enhancing my skills. And I was not mistaken. I’ve attended the INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED SURGICAL RETINA – LUGANO at ESASO, in Lugano.

First of all, thank you for the perfect organization and support you have given me. Lectures were extremely useful, I also enjoyed that they were interactive. I liked the vet lab and the opportunity to try different equipment.

I am Ahmed 29 years old Ophthalmologist from Bahrain.

I got the honor to work in the top two prestigious teaching hospitals in Bahrain KHUH and SMC. I came to know about ESASO from ESCRS winter meeting 2015 in Turkey where they provided a table for their courses. Also I got the honor of attending ESASO Asia medical and surgical retina module No. 13. in 2017 Singapore. Attending to Intermediate and Advanced surgical retina in Lugano was always one of my targets to achieve excellency in VR surgery subspecialty.

I learned a lot of things as the speakers are form the top qualities and they provide to you the latest updated knowledge with experience tips.

Knowing professional surgeons from other areas of the world is also great help and I am sure that I will attend many coming ESASO modules in Lugano Switzerland.

Last but not least I would like to thank all the organizers for their effort and help.

It gives me a great pleasure to share my 1 year experience with ESASO. I am an Ophthalmologist from India who had recently moved to London and I was searching for fellowship in Medical retina when I came to know about ESASO’s fellowship programme from their webpage.

I applied for the 1 year Fellowship Programme in 2017, and had the fortune to be selected for the Medical retina fellowship at Moorfields eye hospital, London under Professor Sobha Sivaprasad. During my tenure here I had the opportunity to clinically assess variety of cases. I attended weekly angiography, electrophysiology meeting at the training institute, had regular case discussion with Professor and also participated in International Congresses.

ESASO team has undertaken quarterly feedback and monitored on my progress. From the interview in Lugano until completion of the fellowship, this has been an academically fulfilling experience.

I am a Spanish Ophthalmologist, currently working as Oculoplastic specialist at the University Hospital in Zurich (Switzerland).

The first time I heard from ESASO was from other colleagues that attended some of the modules. I had the opportunity to attend the Retina course in Lugano, and discovered personally the high level of organization and professionalism of ESASO and their teachers.

I applied to the 1 year Fellowship Programme in 2017, and had the fortune to be selected for the Oculoplastic Fellowship in IMO (Instituto de Microcirugía Ocular) in Barcelona. There I was able to learn from Dr Medel and his team, and acquire the knowledge to continue working and growing in this field. During that year I participated in the ESASO Oculoplastic module in Malta, again experiencing the extraordinary value of these courses.

I consider the ESASO Fellowship Programme as a great opportunity for young ophthalmologist to advance professionally and be able to specialize in a specific field.

I’m Donata Montvilaite, I work at a few private clinics in Vilnius, Lithuania and I’m interested in cataract surgery. I’ve heard about ESASO modules from my colleague and later I researched more information on the Web.

I took “Basic Cataract & Intraocular Refractive Surgery” module. We had Wetlab and Drylab practice to improve our skills. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge from interactive discussions with the world leading experts. All the professors were very friendly and ready to share their experience and professional tricks during the surgery. It was a great opportunity to meet new colleagues from different countries in Lugano. The organization of the course was perfect and the experience I brought back is amazing. This module exceeded my expectations when I got a chance to perform cataract surgery with TrueVision 3D Digital Technology system.

The course was a great combination of learning, surgical training and networking opportunities. I would highly recommend visiting ESASO to every young ophthalmologist!

I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I work at the Ophthalmology Department in County Hospital Zenica. I’m 41 years old. I’ve heard about the ESASO from my colleagues who attended previous ESASO modules.

“Basic Cataract & Intraocular Refractive Surgery” module is the first, and hope not the last ESASO module that I’ve attended. The lectures and the professors were fantastic. It was great experience to work in wet-lab and especially to train on simulator.

I would like to attend Glaucoma and Medical Retina modules in the future.

I’m Alessia Dipietro, 36 years old. I actually work in Bari, as a private ophthalmologist. I’ve attended “Basic Cataract & Intraocular Refractive Surgery” module held in Lugano in November. I’ve already test ESASO in 2015 in Barcellona and I have already appreciated that experience!

And I loved also ESASO Lugano module!

The organization was perfect with lessons, wet and dry lab, coffee breaks and happy hour moments.
It was a great opportunity to improve our English and surgical skills and to know some of the best experts in ophthalmology world and to know how different are cataract surgical approach in the world.

It has been also a great occasion to visit a nice city as Lugano.

I hope to live other ESASO experience especially to improve my knowledge in retina and glaucoma!

My name is Emma Tsarukyan, 29 y/o from Armenia. I work at Malayan’s eye center in Armenia.

I heard about ESASO from my colleague, I attended Cataract and intraocular refractive surgery course in Lugano 2018 November and it was really very useful. The module was very well structured with professional speakers, I really enjoyed it.

It was very beneficial to participate and I believe that such a practical course will improve greatly my knowledge about surgical treatment of cataract surgery

Thanks to ESASO for making such an educational program.

I’m Giulia Deluigi, 38 years old.

I work in Bologna, Italy, in the private sector. My main interests are anterior segment surgery, medical retina and uveitis.

Many of my colleagues suggested me to do an Esaso module because they simply loved it. So I decided to attend the glaucoma module in Lugano in october 2018, hoping to improve my knowledgements in this area and I’ve not been disappointed: it was a great learning experience.

Everything (the campus, the quality of lectures, the wetlab..) was perfect and  I also met many colleagues from all over the world which I’ll never forget. Now it ended I can say that the glaucoma module enriched my professional practice and I’m looking forward to doing a new module again!

“My name is Abdulhameed H. Mahmood, I’m a 31 year old Bahraini Ophthalmologist and I work at Salmaniya Medical Complex in Bahrain, as a senior Ophthalmology Registrar.

I’ve read online about the ESASO modules a few years back during my early residency years. I’ve always wanted to attend one or two modules, and I finally had the opportunity to attend the Cornea and Corneal Refractive Surgery Module in Lugano this year.

It was an amazing experience, to meet and be taught by world-renowned professors and ophthalmologists like Prof. Harminder Dua and Dr. José Güell. The lectures were very informative and provided us with a lot of new knowledge, especially when the lecturers share their own experience and surgical videos, and stimulate discussion among participants.

The opportunity to meet fellow ophthalmologists from all over the world, and share our experiences with them was definitely an added bonus, and it can potentially facilitate further collaboration between ophthalmologists from different parts of the world in the future.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience attending this module, and I will definitely try to attend more ESASO modules in the future.”

4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw Poland, I’m 34 polish, many people from my department have participated in ESASO courses, having a really great experience – with so much knowledge and very interactive form of learning – and a great experience to talk to all the professors.

I have attended the Glaucoma course and I plan to come back for the advanced cataract course, a great experience and a great adventure.

I really enjoyed the small group of learners where everybody could discuss its own experience; also the clinical cases gave me a lot to think about.

Dr. Nicole Horchi, FEBO, DiSSO. Consultant, Dry Eye and Glaucoma department, Pallas Clinics, Olten, Switzerland
is sharing her experience with ESASO!

https://esaso.org/team/horchi-nicole/

I’m Ruggiero Paderni, 35 years old. I actually work in Milan, in public and private hospital. I’ve attended the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Module at ESASO, in Lugano.
The organization was perfect with lessons, wetlab, coffee breaks and happy hour moments.
It was a great opportunity to improve our surgical skills and to know some of the best experts in ophthalmology world.
Not only, it was a great chance for meeting new people and wonderful colleagues from every part of world. Because life is not only surgery but also friendship and collaboration.
I suggest this experience to all colleagues.
Thank you ESASO.

I’m Shaima Awadh Hashem working in a governmental tertiary hospital in Bahrain. I’ve participated in the cornea and refractive surgery module in Lugano (September 2018)
I’ve got to know about ESASO few years ago from the internet and has always wanted to attend its modules and academic events.
I’ve gained a lot of knowledge, skills and experience of great and prestigious professors from around the world who were too kind and cooperative in teaching and guidance through evidence-based approaches.
I was also honoured to meet all my colleagues, now new friends from many countries who were also a reason to motivate me and let me know more about different clinical experiences.

My name is Teodor Razvan Cristescu, I am a 33 years old doctor from Romania. I currently work in France, at CH Luneville. I heard about ESASO a long time ago from my colleagues. I attended the vitreoretinal surgery observership with Prof Junemann in Rostock, Germany.
I had a very nice experience in Rostock. The professor welcomed me in the first day and introduced me to his colleagues. I was invited to the operating theater every day and I attended surgeries with prof Junemann and his colleagues. Dr. Stoll and Dr. Berger are very experienced retinal surgeons and I was impressed with their skills and knowledge. They were very friendly and they explained a lot of things. The microscopes are extremely good and the visualization through the assistant/side view was perfect. I could also see DMEK operations and glaucoma surgeries (trabeculectomy, iStent). I assisted to the morning report and the visit with the hospitalized patients but since my German is poor, that wasn’t very helpful. Nonetheless English was sufficient for most of the observership. The city of Rostock and surroundings such as Warnemunde are picturesque and I enjoyed visiting.
The most enjoyable aspects are that you get to know other medical systems and secondly and most important to me is that you can combine business with pleasure, meaning that you learn a lot but you are also in a sort of vacation, simply observing, meeting people, making friends, visiting places that I didn’t think of visiting before. Best regards, Dr. Teodor Razvan Cristescu.

My name is Olga Denisiuk, I work at the Department of Ophthalmology at P.L. Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, in Kiev, Ukraine. I heard about ESASO from my colleagues a couple of years ago, and only got an opportunity to participate in Medical Retina module this year. It was an amazing experience, to not only to meet different doctors from all over the world, but also to expand and deepen knowledge and widen my professional field with world known professors. The organization and the speakers made sure to make an interesting conversation during the module courses, which gave a chance to get hand on hand experience. It is a great opportunity to be able to collaborate and share our experience and ideas with doctors and professors from all over the world. Big thanks to ESASO for making such an educational program, that not only is able to teach, but also bring together doctors from all over the world, and makes it possible to exchange ideas and work to bring ophthalmological community to a different level.

My name is Dmytro, I am an ophthalmologist from Lviv, Ukraine. I found the information about ESASO some years ago in the internet, but only now I`ve got the opportunity to attend it. I have visited Lugano for Basic Surgical Retina Module and I was really impressed by its organization. Speakers presented for us interesting topics with discussions in friendly atmosphere. Practical part consisted of wet lab and dry lab and was also very useful for surgical skills training. I hope to attend another modules ESASO in future, because they are really good source of new knowledge.