On March 10th 2017 Dr.Dr. Dion Paridaens, oculoplastic and orbital surgeon at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital and ELZA Clinic in Zurich, was invited as keynote speaker at the Annual Alumni Meeting 2017 Moorfields Eye Hospital. In the historic setting of the Royal Society of Medicine, he spoke to a group of ophthalmologists (200plus) about “Medical treatment of Graves’ orbitopathy: where do we go from here.” In his lecture he looked back to his research time at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1990 and 1991, his experience with Consultant Surgeons and other employees of that time, his meeting with Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, and the impact of his work there on his career. He spoke about Basedow’s eye disease and in particular new treatment options based on recent scientific research done. In recent years, many translational research projects have been done through a close collaboration between the Rotterdam Eye Hospital and the Erasmus Medical Center. Examples of these are the first anti-inflammatory treatment with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors and flat late derived growth factor (PDGF) inhibitors in patients with Basedow’s disease.
Paridaens looked forward to new developments and hopes that he and his collaborates can soon start a new trial to study the efficacy and side-effects of a recently fabricated anti-inflammatory drug that is prepared with nanotechnology.