EURETINA 2024: Keynote speaker Yousif Subhi, MD, PhD, on keeping patients in focus

At this year's European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA), the series of keynote lectures ended on Saturday afternoon. The final keynote address was the Ophthalmologica Lecture, delivered by Yousif Subhi, MD, PhD. The Eye Care Network spoke to him about his talk, Things that matter: An evidence-based approach to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). In this video, you'll learn about Prof Subhi's work, what drove him to pursue this area of retina care, and the benefits of "patient-first" thinking.

Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yousif Subhi, MD, PhD: My name is Yousif Subhi, and I'm an associate professor of ophthalmology at University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Southern Denmark and staff specialist in medical retina at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. I've just given the Ophthalmologica lecture here at EURETINA. It's, of course, a big privilege and honor, and I'm so happy to have been selected by the ESRS committee and the EURETINA board to give this lecture.

My lecture is on evidence-based ophthalmology. I presented my background...I did a lot of research in aging and age-related immunological changes and how that affects [the] risk of age-related macular degeneration. My mom developed cancer. She had so many questions, received so few answers, and that made me change my focus. So I focus on questions, simple clinical questions, that matters the most to the patients. And my lecture was on those patient questions in in the field of AMD and CSC.

Think patient first. So if we focus on the patients, sometimes we can do simple clinical research that really aims to answer those questions. My key takeaway is to focus on these patient experiences, and advise patients the best possible way.

EURETINA is a big conference with both phase 2 and 3 studies from the industry, with original studies from clinicians and a lot of PhD students and young ophthalmologists. One of the studies that I'm really excited about is the presentation by Dr Marianne [Guldager] Schou, who presented the impact of subretinal fluid on the refraction and how we should avoid delaying prescription glasses for patients who need it while in treatment for their AMD. I really enjoyed the [Young Retina Specialists] YOURS sessions, the young ophthalmologist sessions, here at EURETINA. They always bring in some young talents, and they do an amazing job.