Q&A: Anat Loewenstein recaps the 2025 EURETINA meeting

The 25th EURETINA conference was a landmark event, attracting 11,000 participants from around the world. Anat Loewenstein, MD, the 2025 The president of EURETINA, highlighted the meeting's comprehensive scientific program, featuring sessions on cutting-edge research, mentorship opportunities, and a Women in Retina breakfast. The conference emphasized networking, educational platforms, and unbiased scientific content. With diverse presentation formats and key opinion leaders sharing insights, the event set a new standard for international retina specialist gatherings.

Note: The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: The 2025 EURETINA meeting was a held in Paris, France this year and was a testament to the advancments that have been made in research, diagnosis, and treatment. As the 2025 EURETINA president, what does this meeting mean to you?

Anat Loewenstein, MD: I'm very thrilled to be the president of EURETINA for its 25th anniversary. I think I'm very, very fortunate that I was put in this spot. This year's meeting surpassed all our expectations. We have 11,000 participants, which is, I think, not only the biggest EURETINA meeting, but the biggest retina meeting ever. I don't think there was ever such a big retina meeting. We are fortunate to have delegates from all over the world. The meeting is built on very important pillars. The most important platform is the EURETINA sessions in which we really cover topics, both from the very basic side and the most cutting edge knowledge that appears on this specific topic. Then we have symposia, we have instruction courses, we have free papers, we have speakers corner, we have posters. We have so many platforms in which you can both learn and share your ideas, submit your research to scrutiny and suggestions and really learn a lot. I think this meeting is also very good in providing a networking platform for retina specialists from all over the world. I'm actually very proud of that.

Two specific programs that are highlighted in this meeting is the women in retina, for which we just had a breakfast, I think it was attended by a few hundred women. We didn't have seats in the room where we just held an open conversation on challenges that women might still have. The other big effort that we're doing is the mentorship program of the EURETINA, for which this year, we had an alumni of all the recent 5 years of mentees that we are having at the EURETINA and creating the networking between them, which is a good platform for research and for exchanging ideas. Most of the sessions I attended, including cutting-edge, new scientific content that was presented in a very clear and scientific and objective manner. There were plenty of Q and A submitted, and in some sessions also open discussions. I'm actually very proud of the scientific program.

OT: Why do you think EURETINA has grown so significantly over the past few years?

Loewenstein: I think that EURETINA became very popular over the years. First of all, because of the high-level scientific content. We are working very hard on that. I think everyone, at the end of the day wants to see the real content that comes up. We're also providing a nice platform for a younger retina specialists in the form of the YOURS meeting, which is built by young leaders and addresses some of the things that they are most interested in. I think this has a big attraction. We are providing all the newest data possible. We have many options at every single minute, and all of it is built-in, I think, in a very scientific objective, unbiased manner. I think this is one of the main attractions of the meeting. I also think that being able to hear from key opinion leaders in various EURETINA sessions or even industrial symposia is very, very attractive, because this is where you actually hear what is really going on.

OT: What can we expect from next year's EURETINA meeting?

Loewenstein: So next year, the President is going to be Professor Nicole Eter. I'm going to be past president who still has a lot of responsibilities at the meeting. So we will still work very hard. I think that what we will aim for is to have highly scientific meeting such as this one, we will try to learn things that we can do better in the next meeting. Maybe one thought that came up is to bring some more patient associations to the meeting and hear what their needs are, and maybe to hear more surveys from the membership to see what are the things that are more interesting for members that we didn't maybe completely fulfill this time.