Dear friends and colleagues,

On behalf of the ECVO, we are excited to welcome you to our annual ECVO conference being held in Rhodes, on “the Island of the Sun”, in Greece, May 18-21, 2023. This location had been chosen for the 2020 conference which, unfortunately, had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. We are therefore doubly delighted to finally meet in Rhodes.

The venue of the conference is the Rodos Palace Hotel and Conference Center in Rhodes where you “taste the authentic flavors of the eternal Greek summer, with the gentle Mediterranean sun and the sea breeze that soothes your mind and soul”. Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site and is thought to be one of the most beautiful in all of Greece with its labyrinth of alleys, courtyards, mosques, chapels, Turkish fountains and Gothic churches.  Rhodes is also famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

After the successful first hybrid meeting last year, the 2023 ECVO conference will be conducted in the same format. Participants can join in person, participate virtually or sign up for a combination of both. The meeting will be streamed life and the recordings of the meeting will be available for participants to watch until the end of August 2023.

This year’s topic of the Continuing Education (CE) day and the Masterclass (MC) is “Clinical Investigation in Veterinary Ophthalmology: Aspects of Study Design”. The program was assembled by the Scientific Committee under the guidance of William Beltran. Eight speakers from Europe and the USA, all experts in their relative field of specialization, will share their knowledge.

The annual meeting starts on the Thursday with the CE day during which topics including designing a good clinical study in veterinary ophthalmology and how to access and critically evaluate the veterinary & comparative ophthalmology literature will be presented. Residents, Diplomates and anyone involved or interested in the proper design of a study or in critically reading the literature will find these lectures of great value.

Friday and Saturday will be packed with presentations of case reports, case series, clinical and scientific research papers delivered by residents, practitioners, and researchers. Dr. Sven Schnichels from the University of Tübingen will give the State of the Art Lecture, on pros and cons of using animals and alternative approaches in ophthalmic studies on Saturday during the main program.

The meeting comes to an end on Sunday with the Masterclass. It was designed to explore the topic of study designs further by including lectures on multi-center studies, transparency and reproducibility in research and a special focus on the pathophysiology of ocular pain and management of ocular pain that is of interest to all of us working in the field of ophthalmology.

The culinary and social aspect of the meeting will be embraced with the Welcome reception on Thursday evening at the outside pool area of the hotel and the Gala Dinner on Friday night. It will be held at the Sissito, a restaurant in the Old Town on the outskirts of the Palace of the Grand Master, with a unique secluded internal courtyard. Please take the opportunity to visit and thank the exhibitors who have generously supported our meeting and specialty throughout the years!

Enjoy your stay in Rhodes, the conference, the food and the beach!