Q&A: What is the value of the YOURS program at EURETINA?

Kristina Pfau, MD, FEBO, is a consultant ophthalmologist at the University of Bonn and also one of the committee members of the YOURS Committee, which represents the young retina specialists within EURETINA. At the 2025 EURETINA Congress held in Paris, France, Pfau spoke with Ophthalmology Times to provide an overview of the YOURS Committee's activities, including educational initiatives like mystery case sessions, science labs, and webinars. The committee aims to support young retina specialists through professional development, networking, and access to resources, including a preparatory course for the European Board of Ophthalmology (EBO) retina subspecialty exam.

Note: The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: Can you share how the YOURS program will play a role in the 2025 EURETINA Congress?

Kristina Pfau: YOURS is having YOURS Saturday, YOURS day, and that's always, every year contains 4 sessions, which is the mystery cases, where young retina specialists present their most interesting cases in a mystery way. So you can guess and kind of try to do your best and solve them. Then there's a science lab where four very talented speakers actually prepare their research in a funny way. I can, I can already disclose that this will be super funny this year. Then there is the rising star session, which used to be the symposium where advanced career stage young specialists present their research of the last year. Some more of an overview, which can be very interesting. Then there's the Ophthalmologica lecture, which is a prize given by the Ophthalmologica, which is a journal. We can propose someone for this lecture. This year, it's Maria Vittoria Cicinelli from Italy.

OT: Beyond this meeting, how does the YOURS program provide young retina specialists with learning opportunities?

Pfau: We try to do activities all year round. Of course, the Congress season is our main focus, but we do have webinars. We do have podcasts. There have been several interesting podcasts by YOURS members about their experience and fellowships by experience of going abroad. We always do a case club webinar. So we present our cases that we find all year round, and discuss them with the audience. And then, of course, there's online material that you can have access to, and being a member has the advantage that you have 3 years' free membership to EURETINA, so you really can get all the access and all the advantages of a full EURETINA member.

OT: For anyone who may be unfamiliar, with is the EBO exam?

Pfau: So the EBO retina exam is a subspecialty exam, which you can take after certain experience in the field of retina, and after you've taken your normal EBO exam, and we, as young retina specialists, wanted to do a course to prepare on the topics. This has evolved in the last year. So in the first year, it was quite a mix of topics, because, of course, we weren't given the questions and so on, but now we have some experience, and now it's really an interesting session, also for people who don't want to take the exam or don't want to sit the exam, but for everyone. We have 8 sub-specialty sections in EURETINA, and we always cover 4 of them in 1 year and 4 in the other year. The sessions are super interesting, because we, as young retina specialists, kind of ask them to always lead a chair by 1 expert and 1 young retina specialist. So they are paired like 1 maybe older and 1 younger chair. So you can get both perspectives. You can get the perspective of the professor who may overlook the whole area, and then maybe some sneak peeks from somebody who's just taken the exam and can really help you in the preparation, and knows how the situation is for the attendees.