Mailing To IFOS Members:
IFOS Representatives and Vision Requirements for Driving

Dear IFOS Members,

Following up on the e-mail that ICO Secretary General Bruce Spivey sent to you in August, I am writing to remind you of some deadlines for the 2006 IFOS General Assembly and World Ophthalmology Congress and to ask for your comments on the ICO Report on Vision Requirements for Driving.

1. Please Let Bruce Spivey Know Your IFOS Representative by October 1
Thanks to those of you who have informed Dr. Spivey who your society’s Representative will be for the 2006 General Assembly of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS). (The Assembly is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on February 21 at the Transamérica Expo Center & Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, during the World Ophthalmology Congress/XXX International Congress of Ophthalmology.)

A reminder that we need to know all IFOS Representatives by October 1, in order to arrange free registration for them at the Congress.

If you have not already done so, please send the name and e-mail address of your IFOS Representative to Bruce at mailto:spivey@icoph.org. (We would encourage you to name an officer or current leader of your society as IFOS Representative.)

Bruce will send the information to the Congress Secretariat, which will register the Representatives and send a confirmation directly to them.

Representatives should make their own hotel reservations, which they can do at: http://www.ophthalmology2006.com.br/hotel2.php.

Also, please let Bruce know if you or your IFOS Representative needs a formal invitation to the Congress, in order to have your travel approved.

2. Agenda for the IFOS General Assembly
Thanks also to those of you who sent Bruce suggestions for topics to be discussed at the IFOS General Assembly. Among the suggestions: multi-level exchange programs for ophthalmologists, inclusion in clinical trials of ophthalmic centers in Asia, optometry and general campaigns (campañas visuales).

We welcome other topics but have begun to recognize that there will not be enough time to address all of the issues that may be of interest to you and warrant discussion. So we are considering asking IFOS Representatives at the General Assembly to talk first about a more general question, such as:

What are the most critical challenges facing international ophthalmology in the next 10 years?

Based on that discussion, we can select a few issues to talk about in more detail. This will also help us define issues that should be addressed by the ICO and IFOS after the meeting in São Paulo.

3. Please Comment on the ICO Report on Vision Requirements for Driving Safety
One item that we know will be on the IFOS Agenda is the ICO Report on "Vision Requirements for Driving Safety."

Prepared by ICO Committee on Standards Chairman Jean-Jacques DeLaey, MD, and Standards Committee Member August Colenbrander, MD, the report was considered by the Council when it met in May and has since been revised.

It would help us greatly to have your comments and feedback on this report now, so that we can make changes if needed prior to consideration in São Paulo. The report is posted on the ICO Web site starting at http://www.icoph.org/standards/driving.html and can be downloaded as a PDF file from http://www.icoph.org/pdf/visionfordriving.pdf (376 KB).

We would particularly appreciate your comments on the recommendations, which are listed at http://www.icoph.org/standards/drivingrecs.html. Please send your comments to Dr. DeLaey at mailto:standards@icoph.org.

4. Deadlines for Speaker Registration and Best Papers for World Ophthalmology Congress
A reminder that speakers at the World Ophthalmology Congress must register by today, September 8th. See: http://www.ophthalmology2006.com.br/registro1.php.

September 28 is the deadline for national societies to report the best free papers submitted to the Congress from their countries.

The Congress will provide free registration to the first author of the best free paper on ophthalmology and the best free paper on prevention of blindness from each country (a total of two authors, one in each category, per country), as determined by the national ophthalmologic society.

You can find details and a list of the best national free papers that have already been selected at http://www.ophthalmology2006.com.br/best.php.

Please let Council Member Pran Nagpal, MD (mailto:manishad1@sancharnet.in), (not the Congress) know about your best papers no later than September 28.

Dr. Nagpal will inform the Congress of the selection, and the Congress will contact the authors about waiving the registration fee.

For more details on the Congress, see: http://www.ophthalmology2006.com.br and look for the next ICO Leader Letter, which we will send to you within a week.

We will be back in touch with you next month. In the meantime, please let me know if you have questions about the IFOS General Assembly or the World Congress.

With best regards,

Fritz Naumann

With best regards,

Fritz Naumann

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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. G.O.H. Naumann

President of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) (1998-2002-2006)
http://www.icoph.org
mailto:naumann@icoph.org

Professor Emeritus
Department of Ophthalmology
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Schwabachanlage 6
D-91054 Erlangen
Germany

Telefon +49-91 31 / 85 3-44 77
Telefax +49-91 31 / 85 3-64 35