Bill Harvey: Vita brevis, ars longa

Another successful annual conference of the European Academy of Optometry and Optics (EAOO) took place in Rome last weekend and delegates were all aware of the increasing importance of such a body.

Europe is undergoing an interesting yet challenging demographic change at present. While the financial crash has undoubtedly caused a blip, the average life expectancy in Western Europe was 79 years for males and 84 years for females in 2018. So, with most common eye diseases having a strong association with increasing age (75% to 80% of all visually impaired people in Europe are 65 years of age or older), there is an ever-increasing need for a unified and effective trans-European eye health strategy. To underline this, the World Health Organisation estimates there are 26,350,000 visually impaired individuals in Europe. Early disease detection, accurate monitoring of treatment and prevention advice will all help address this ever-growing problem and the EAOO will be instrumental in coordinating unified pan-European eye health services.