Newsletter 2001 (PDF file)

The 38th ISCEV Symposium, which took place last year, was the last symposium of the century: the Millennium Symposium. It was organized by Dr Vaegan, from February 13th to 17th 2000 at the historical site of St. John's College in Sydney, Australia. I would first of all like to express my gratitude to Dr Vaegan for the wonderful organization of this successful meeting. The ISCEV Symposium was held in Australia for the very first time, and the meeting proved to be one of the most successful, attracting a large number of international attendees. The season was just perfect; the agenda of the meeting reflected everyone's interests; the events planned based on Dr Vaegan's unique ideas were all quite enjoyable. The abstracts of the meeting were also displayed on the internet for the second time, which proved to be very beneficial. The internet has now become an important tool of the society. Almost 200 people registered for the meeting; together with their accompanying persons, the meeting had close to 250 people. Additionally, I have been told that this meeting gathered the largest number of participating countries.

In addition to the 4th ISCEV Teaching Course in Standard Techniques, held prior to the main meeting, the 38th ISCEV also attempted to hold the First Ever ISCEV Course in Multifocal Techniques, which took place one day after the main symposium, and many attendees stayed for this meeting as well. We did not have a single day of rain during the meeting; the weather was perfect without being too cold or too hot and all of us thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Australia. Once again, I express my sincere gratitude to Dr Vaegan for the wonderful job he did.

The recipient of the Eberhard Dodt Award, which was inaugurated in 1996, was Mr. Mohan Ram from India, who has taken a thread used for embroidery and used it to develop a very inexpensive but accurate electrode for pattern ERG. I understand that there are many physicians in India beginning to apply clinical ERG, and Mr. Ram's receiving the award will, I am sure, be a great inspiration to them all. Unfortunately Prof Dodt's widow, Mrs. Elke Dodt, who every year has attended the ceremony and congratulated the recipient, could not attend the meeting this time. We all missed her but she did write a very heartfelt letter, which I had the honour to read at the award ceremony.

This ISCEV had 66 paper and 56 poster presentations, or a total of 122 submissions. Their topics included diagnostic methodology; multifocal techniques and applications, which continues to be very popular; auto-immune and inflammatory responses, which was one of the main themes of the meeting; diabetic visual electrophysiology; visual function related to Vigabatrin, and results from various clinical studies on VEPs and EOGs. There were 3 main lectures:

° Prof Geoffrey G Arden: Recent Advances in the Basic Understanding of the Nature of the ERG
° Prof Paul Beaumont: Electrophysiological Diagnosis of Acute and Inflammatory Diseases
° Prof Graham Harding: Electrophysiological Methods for Assessing Field Losses Associated with Vigabatrin

We are now in the 21st century and we must work to improve all that we have accomplished in the 20th. ISCEV continues to be more active, the western hemisphere at ARVO and the meeting in Europe, China and Japan all work together with ISCEV and this has been made possible by the efforts of the ISCEV Board members. I take this opportunity to express my respect and gratitude to these members. The role of Prof Colin Barber, the Secretary General, can be said to be the backbone of the society. I am deeply relieved that he has confirmed to keep his role until a year after my resignation as the President. Prof James V Odom's editorial work of Documenta Ophthalmologica and Prof Emiko Adachi's role as Treasurer take up great part of their daily work, and I am deeply obliged for their hard work. Due to the efforts of another Board member, Prof Michael Bach, the ISCEV Newsletter became obtainable through the internet since 1999; this has contributed significantly to providing timely information to all members. While his term as Member-at-Large has terminated, he has been elected to continue the role for one more term, which I was very pleased about.

During the past year, there have been some changes of the Board members. Prof Nick Galloway's term has finished and thus he has resigned. Having also served as EVER liaison officer, his contribution to the society has been most significant and I thank him sincerely for his dedication. Taking over the role was Prof Graham Harding from Birmingham, UK who has become the Vice-President (Europe/Africa). One other chair for Vice-President, which became vacant when I became the President, was taken by Prof Yoshihisa Oguchi from Tokyo, Japan. Prof Colin Barber took an independent position as the Secretary-General so the position of the Secretary for Europe was taken by Dr Urich Kellner from Berlin, Germany. When Prof Henk Spekreijse's term was over, Prof Pierre Lachapelle from Montreal, Canada, was elected to the position of Member-at-Large. Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof Galloway and also to Prof Spekreijse for their long year's dedication to the ISCEV.

I am happy to inform you that the projects on guidelines for recording ERGs are progressing well. The pattern ERG guidelines, a project headed by Prof Michael Bach, were published in Documenta Ophthalmologica during the year 2000, and I am grateful for this accomplishment. Because of the effort of the committee headed by Prof Michael Marmor, the multifocal ERG guidelines will soon be completed too; these guidelines include the finest detail and are expected to be a significant tool for researchers using multifocal ERG. They will be appreciated and respected by all, I am quite sure.

Looking back over the past year, I recall many things that we have encountered. One very happy event was that Prof Paul Sieving, who served as ISCEV treasure for 8 years (from 1985 to 1993) and who has also given significant academic support to the society, was chosen to become the director of the NEI this year. This is a great honour to the society as well as to Paul, and on behalf of the members, I take this opportunity to congratulate him. He also has received the 2001 Alcon Award and this deserves further recognition.

There was also an exciting new initiative in our society: today, through CEVnet we have a new method of communication among the members. This project was initiated by Dr Scott Brodie, New York, USA to exchange ideas and information on clinical electrophysiology by email. This was a great idea and is already being well used for timely exchange of information and honest opinions. I am sure it will be long enjoyed by members.

There was, too, a sad event. On March 13th 2001, Dr 'Fried van Lith passed away. He had long been contributing as an ISCEV Board member, and when I first became interested in the society, he was serving as the Secretary-General. While, at that time, I had just started focal macular ERG, his accomplishments were already well recognized. He was my mentor and friend, and it saddens me deeply to know that I will never be able to see him again. On behalf of ISCEV, I wrote a letter of condolence to his wife, Mrs. Mieke van Lith, and I will continue to pray that he may rest in peace.

I am proud that ISCEV continues to grow and progress, and I feel our accomplishments need to be shared with other fields of medicine. The 2001 ISCEV Symposium is being planned by Prof Lachapelle's great team, and we all look forward to getting together and discussing subjects of mutual interest in Montréal very soon. Let us strive, through our publications and through our contacts with other societies, to ensure that the achievements of our society are recognised world-wide.

Yozo Miyake, MD, President of ISCEV

The Secretary-General writes:

Your Journal Needs You!

It needs your support; it needs your understanding; it needs your manuscripts.

Since the beginning of the new millennium Documenta Ophthalmologica has been the official ISCEV journal; it is our journal and we can make it what we want. It’s a great opportunity and challenge.

When we took it over we recognised that it was a niche journal with a relatively low impact factor, a too long publication lead-time and sporadic distribution problems. Now, I think it is fair to say it is a niche journal with a relatively low impact factor, a too long publication lead-time and chronic distribution problems. It’s best to be honest about these things.

The Board is aware of the problems, which are all too apparent. It is also aware of the considerable hard work by the Editor and others to overcome them and the significant progress that has been made. This is as yet, not so apparent. Let me deal with the four factors one at a time:

1. It is a niche journal– Yes, there is nothing else it can be. There is plenty of room in the market for a niche journal. We just must make it an excellent niche journal.

2. –with a relatively low impact factor– Yes, but we can improve this. Recent issues have been of a high quality and some, such as the Multifocal Special Issue will become “benchmark” publications that are bound to be much cited. The I.F. will improve. We can all help this process by submitting our first publication on a topic to Documenta Ophthalmologica and citing it in subsequent publication. We must submit our good stuff to our own journal first.
3. –and a too long publication lead-time– Yes, and we’re doing something about it. We have taken back control of the manuscript flow process from Kluwer and we will publish a schedule of turn-around times after the Board Meeting this year. We’re well aware that quick publication is important to authors. It’s something we should be able to offer with our own journal. And we will.
4. –and chronic distribution problems. Yes, last year was the worst ever. Some of us didn’t get any issues at all. And because of the history of sporadic distribution problems, many weren’t even aware that they weren’t getting them. Perhaps we can take consolation in the fact that it cannot possibly get any worse. On the positive side I can report that there have been staff changes at Kluwer and there is now a real determination to get it right.

All of this is just the framework –a very necessary framework, to be sure, only a framework– for the journal to thrive. The engine of its success will be a steady flow of good quality manuscripts. And that is down to all of us.

Let us do that little bit extra and turn the presentation we have prepared for the symposium into a manuscript. Let us be that little bit chauvinistic and think first of our own journal when we have some good stuff to report. Then we can be that little bit proud that our journal is the first place that anyone looks if they want to know about what’s hot in clinical electrophysiology of vision..

Colin Barber, PhD

The Western Hemisphere Division of the ISCEV meeting, also known as ISCEV@ARVO, was held 28 April 2001, at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carolyn Weleber served as the Administrative Associate in charge of organizing the conference. Drs. Richard Weleber and Bill Dawson chaired the sessions. One-hundred and four participants from around the world attended. The first session of the afternoon was devoted to "Multifocal ERG and ERG Components and Techniques." The second session focused on "Electrophysiology in Clinical Disease, Animal Models, and Other Topics." Eighteen presentations were given during the two afternoon sessions. The dinner which followed was attended by members and guests. This was the second year for which ISCEV@ARVO was held at the Convention Center and was the best attended meeting so far. Everyone expressed support to continue having the meeting at this site.

The 2002 ISCEV@ARVO meeting will be held Saturday afternoon, 1:00-6:00 PM, May 4th, at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, 1900 S.E. 17th Street Causeway, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Free parking will be available in the same structure used for the ARVO meeting. Following the scientific sessions, a gourmet buffet dinner is planned for the participants and their guests at the Convention Center. Further information on this meeting will be available in late Fall 2001. Please contact Carolyn Weleber, at 503/494-8386 or by email (weleberc@ohsu.edu), for further details.

Richard G Weleber, MD, Secretary for the Americas

Japan. The 48 annual meeting of Japanese Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision was held at Morioka city from 28 to 30 Sept 2000 by Prof Yutaka Tazawa in Iwate Medical School. Participants were 108 in this meeting. One inviting lecture by Prof Dr Paul A. Sieving, three memorial lectures by Prof Dr Yozo Miyake, Prof Dr Kazuo Kawasaki and Prof Dr Emiko Adachi, one symposium of “Cone ERG update” organized by Dr Ronald A Bush and Prof Dr Masayuki Horiguchi and 42 free papers were given. The next meeting will be held in Mie Prefecture from 16-17 November 2001 by Prof Dr Yukitaka Uji in School of Medicine Mie University. (Reported by Y Oguchi)

Australia and New Zealand. The department of health of the Australian government has accepted the ISCEV standards as the fundamental set of acceptable procedures, to be used as the basis for calculating reimbursements. They also recognised dark adaptometry. The pattern ERG is recognised as a separate and different test from the ERG and the EOG (where it had previously been seen to substantially overlap in procedure/cost basis with the ERG). In this stage tests were selected will have independent billing status and are recognised as are safe, valid, necessary and independent. The next stage sets the fees. (Reported by Vaegan)

Yoshihisa Oguchi MD, Secretary for Asia & Australia

European ISCEV activities were well represented in the autumn of 2000 at the meeting of the European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER). This took place in Palma de Mallorca from 4-7 October 2000. There were eight papers in the session for electrophysiology of vision and in addition a special interest symposium had been organised by the Vice president for Europe and Africa, NR Galloway. This was entitled “Scanning Procedures in Ophthalmology”. The speakers in the latter were Dr Mathias Seeliger, Professor Manfred Fahle, Professor Fred Fitzke and Mr Hatem Atta. As in 1999 the abstracts from EVER were published in “Ophthalmic Research”. This year the meeting of EVER will take place in Alicante in Spain where it is hoped that we shall see even more papers from members of ISCEV.

Florence Rigaudière <rigaud@ext.jussieu.fr > provides us with additional details on French Meetings: We are organizing a meeting on 29 September 2001 for the sixth time. The subject is not yet definitively chosen but will probably be "the visual exploration and corneal surgery". For further information please contact
Université Paris, 7 UFR Lariboisière Saint Louis, 10 avenue de Verdun, 75010 Paris
tel +33 1 44 89 77 28, fax +33 1 44 89 78 23, email <isamoati@ext.jussieu.fr>

Nicholas R Galloway, Vice president Europe-Africa

Mr. LS Mohan Ram from India was elected Dodt awardee at the ISCEV meeting in Sydney.

The Eberhard Dodt Memorial Award commemorates the life and work of Prof Dr med Dr med hc Eberhard Dodt, former director of the Max-Planck-Institute in Bad Nauheim, and long-standing member of the advisory board of ISCEV. The award is given for the best presentation at the annual meeting to a young scientist (below 35 years of age) according to scientific excellence, the novelty and potential value and/or clinical usefulness and the quality of the presentation (taking into account the native language).

At the Sydney meeting, Mohan Ram presented a poster demonstrating the ingenious use of gold plated Sari silk. This can be used similar to a DTL fibre, suitable to pick up retinal signals for the PERG, ERG, and multifocal ERG. Not only is this an excellent example to draw from local sources, but it even may be advantageous compared to the DTL fibre due to its higher weight, keeping it possibly more stable.

Mrs. Elke Dodt, who regularly presents the Dodt award, could not attend the meeting this time. So our president Y Miyake read her letter to us to celebrate the occasion. Elke Dodt plans to attend the Canadian meeting and has not been idle in the meantime:

In March 2000, briefly after the Sydney meeting, she organized a concert entitled “More research – more vision”. The concert took place in Bad Nauheim, the home of late Eberhard Dodt in who's honour the award was inaugurated in 1996. Internationally renowned musicians, including Dr Mariko Mitsuyo (piano) and Soichiro Ono (horn), gave a rousing performance. The concert raised DM 13,000, which will ensure continuing thrive of the Eberhard-Dodt donation.

As with most things in life there is good news and bad news regarding the journal during the past year of 2000. Also there are the data. I provide my usual summary table at the end of the report.

Background

At the membership meeting in Eilat in 1999, the ISCEV members voted to make Documenta Ophthalmologica the official journal of the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision. As such, the purpose of Documenta Ophthalmologica is to promote the understanding and application of clinical electrophysiology of vision. Documenta Ophthalmologica publishes reviews, research articles, technical notes, brief reports and case studies which inform the readers about basic and clinical sciences related to visual electrodiagnosis and means to improve diagnosis and clinical management of patients using visual electrophysiology. Studies may involve animal or human subjects.

This year ISCEV will be evaluating our affiliation with Kluwer and determining whether to retain Documenta Ophthalmologica as our official journal. If ISCEV chooses not to maintain its affiliation we will need to determine another means of producing our journal. One strategy which will be on the floor will be the creation of an electronic journal.

Good News

Part of our agreement with Documenta's publisher, Kluwer, was to fill 6 issues per year. In 2000, we filled 6 issues. We seem poised to do the same in 2001. During 2000, there was a 29% increase in the number of regular submissions, which helps us toward our goal of not depending on special issues. However, we still fall short of a goal of 60 manuscripts submissions per year. Therefore, next year and probably for the next several years special issues will constitute a major portion of our efforts.

One exciting thing, which has happened in the last few months, has been the appearance of CevNET (Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision Network) under the direction of Scott Brodie. I have asked Scott to submit occasional summaries of interesting topics discussed on CevNET for the edification of those of us who do not have ready access to email. These will be regarded as editorials.

Bad News

One of the most disturbing aspects of the last year was the discovery that many of our members did not receive Documenta during the year 2000. If you are one of those who has not received issues in 2000, please contact Dr Bach so that your name can be added to the list of those who have not received their issues. I might also add that you might check whether your library has received the issues as we have discovered at least one library, which did not receive its year 2000 issues.

Last year I announced that we would be changing our review procedures so that manuscripts were handled from Kluwer's offices in Dordrecht rather than my office in Morgantown. I was assured that this would greatly improve the efficiency of our operations. A brief glance at our summary statistics clearly shows that this has not been the case. Adding additional steps to the review process has greatly slowed down the process of reviewing manuscripts. An average of six weeks was added to our initial review time. Moreover, on those occasions when authors' wanted to know the status of their manuscripts, there was uncertainty about where manuscripts were in the process. Therefore, I have informed Kluwer that we will return to our previous procedure. In the future I ask that you send manuscripts to me, at the following address:

J. Vernon Odom, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief
Documenta Ophthalmologica
West Virginia University Eye Institute
1 Stadium Road
Post Office Box 9193
Morgantown, WV 26506-9193
USA

Telephone: +1 (304) 598-6959
Telefacsimile: +1 (304) 598-6928
Electronic Mail: jodom@wvu.edu

Renewed Commitment

I have been pleased with the progress in manuscripts submissions this year. However, I have also feared that this trend will be halted by the poor performance this year in handling manuscripts. Therefore, in returning control of the review process to our hands I feel that we still need to improve on our prior performance, not just improve on Kluwer's performance. Therefore, Ms. Karen Murray, our Managing Editor, and I have examined our procedures and set up the following goals for ourselves. Our goal is to send authors information regarding the initial decision on their manuscript within 6 weeks of our receiving the manuscript.
 

To make this schedule work, requires not only a commitment from Ms. Murray and myself, it also requires commitment on the part of the reviewers. It will be crucial that reviewers who agree to review manuscripts do so in a timely fashion. Having acknowledged that numerous factors may keep us from obtaining our goals, a major reason for setting these goals is to give us a framework for our expectations. If you sent a manuscript and you have not been informed of its receipt within 2 or 3 weeks, something may be wrong, you should feel free to contact us and ask if the manuscript has been received.

If you have not received word on a manuscript in two months be suspicious and contact us. It is taking too long either because we have slipped up or because of delays in reviewers. As always, you may send such comments either by regular or email to me, jodom@wvu.edu, or to the managing editor, Ms. Karen Murray, kmurray@hsc.wvu.edu.
 

The ISCEV-Sponsored Teaching Course.   The content of the ISCEV Teaching Course is developed by the Educational Committee of ISCEV, and this course is always given in English. The 4th ISCEV Teaching Course was given in the year 2000 in Sydney, Australia, in conjunction with the 38th ISCEV Symposium. Following the symposium, the 1st ISCEV Multifocal Course was offered. Both were highly successful.

The next Teaching Course will take place Saturday June 16th and Sunday morning June 17th, 2001, Manoir des Sables, Magog-Orford, Québec, Canada, just before the 39th ISCEV Symposium. This course will be co-directed by Graham Holder, Ph.D., who takes over as Education Director July 1st, 2001, and Stuart Coupland, Ph.D., who is the Local Coordinator. The website for the Course can be found at the following internet address <http://is.dal.ca/~ftrembla/course.html>

Richard G. Weleber, MD, Education Director

The departing president, Dr Eberhardt Zrenner, in his address to the formal dinner, generously voted the 38th ISCEV in Sydney ‘the best conference ever’. We worked hard for the members and were honoured by this accolade. Australia is far from most places so there was economical accommodation to keep costs low. Consequently 215 registered and 45 accompanying persons came to present 180 abstracted papers, making it one of the largest meetings ever and the largest without a large base of local attendees. ISCEV has never had an Indian member so we were especially excited to see three new members from India and for one of them to win the Dodt Award (for the ingenious use of gold plated Sari silk as a sub-palpebral electrode). There were also substantial contingents from Egypt and Russia. Sydney weather was at its best and everyone enjoyed the famous sunshine, harbour, beaches, restaurants, wine and multicultural atmosphere of nearby Newtown. The finances were well balanced and there would have been a small surplus, which became a large profit (ca $A61,000) with the help of Sponsorship from Aventis, for the Vigabatrin Symposium on the final day. The money is held in a trust fund in Australia, waiting for the exchange rate to improve.

St John’s College of Sydney University gave us excellent accommodation and meeting facilities in traditional Victorian gothic ambience. The library, decorated with gilt and painted timber columns, where we held our lectures, the cloisters, dining hall and chapel with their large stained glass and leaded windows, all promoted quiet, scholarly, communication. The members worked hard in Committee and finalised revisions of the PERG and VEP standard and began work on a set of guidelines for the multifocal ERG and another revision of the ERG standard.

The manicured lawns and playing fields made a wonderful backdrop for our welcome reception and final picnic lunch. The stroll to the University Union for our formal dinner made the evening gracious and relaxed. The menu included many local specialties; Crocodile, Kangaroo, Emu and Macadamia ice cream. The outings helped everyone discover Sydney. There was a harbour cruise on the second evening. The half day tour explored local costal bushland and waterways in Kurringai National Park. At the lunch stop we met a troupe of Australian Aboriginal dancers and guides who showed us examples of the preserved rock art in the area and taught us traditional dances and boomerang throwing. These native skills, plus an Emu parade to collect the litter and the modern local skill of hot pie eating, were the main tasks in the after lunch sports carnival.

The conference had four optional components. Two were training sessions. The fourth ISCEV course was held in the weekend before and was fully subscribed with 33 attendees. The first ever Multifocal Course, held the weekend after the meeting, was oversubscribed with 45 attendees, but we managed to accommodate them all. The course was so exciting that the lecturers were still together discussing finer points when the students had gone, after 10 days of conferencing together. There were two other very popular supplementary events. After the half days tour everyone was invited, and most came, to Vaegan’s surf club at Bronte beach, to see a surf carnival followed by a feast of fresh prawns and oysters, salads and barbeque with open bar at club prices. This event had a special outpouring of excitement and was particular a high point of good fellowship, pleasure and enthusiasm. After the conference over 100 people toured the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, stopped at high lookouts including the Famous Three Sisters, lunched in an exhibition garden in a cool valley, and finished the day seeing hundreds of native animals and birds in the Featherston Park. We had a good time and hope you all did too.

Written and submitted by Vaeganon behalf of the
Organising Committee – 38th ISCEV Conference
Philip Anderton, Brian Brown, Colin Barber Kelly Urquhardt, and Vaegan