Determined to do Good
Ophthalmology mourns the loss of a leader who achieved many great things
I first met Peter Barry in September 2014. It was the last day of the ESCRS Congress in London, just after the “Best of the Best” review session. I was traveling home later, so I was wasn’t wearing a suit – just wearing jeans, comfortable shoes, a clean shirt crumpled from being at the bottom of my suitcase all week, and a mildly disheveled brown tweed jacket. But I thought, what the hell, let’s go over and introduce myself to the great man. I’m forever glad I did.
A founding member of ESCRS back in 1991, and a past president and treasurer of the society, it’s fair to say that he played a great hand in building the ESCRS into the mighty organization it is today. Famously, he was responsible for the game-changing ESCRS postoperative endophthalmitis prophylaxis study. In his own words:
“My primary interest was (and always has been) retinal surgery. In my job in the Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, I got distressed at the frequency of patients that were getting referred to me with postoperative endophthalmitis following cataract surgery – so that was the impetus to start the endophthalmitis study.”
This study demonstrated that intracameral antibiotics administered during cataract surgery significantly reduced the risk of postoperative endophthalmitis. Clinical practice was changed, and in the decade since the study’s publication, untold numbers of eyes have been saved from infection – in a large part, thanks to Peter’s determination. He was also behind the EUREQUO registry that allowed comparison of manual and femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery outcomes, providing robust evidence when there was little there before. In a time when a femtosecond laser is still the best part of €500,000, understanding just what that sort of capital investment will mean for patient outcomes is important. In the absence of head-to-head trial data, the EUREQUO registry represents the most robust dataset out there, and Peter, as the driving force behind it, deserves great credit. As a semi-objective metric of how ophthalmologists feel about that work, I last saw the EUREQUO data presented at the 2015 AAO annual meeting in Las Vegas. The presentation ended with the largest round of applause I’d seen all day.
The recent news of his death after a short illness was deeply saddening. I remember him as an impressive, charming man. I’m sure ophthalmology will, thanks to his achievements, remember him as a fearless leader, who tackled, head on, some of the field’s toughest challenges. I’d like to extend our sincerest sympathies to all of Peter’s family, friends and colleagues at this time.
Mark Hillen
Editor
I spent seven years as a medical writer, writing primary and review manuscripts, congress presentations and marketing materials for numerous – and mostly German – pharmaceutical companies. Prior to my adventures in medical communications, I was a Wellcome Trust PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.
