How to use the speech recognition tool?

Interview of the month - Dr Camiel Boon, HCP Leiden University Medical Center and Academic Medical Center Amsterdam

Every month, ERN-EYE invites you to meet an active person within the network through a short interview. This month, it's Camiel Boon, HCP Leiden University Medical Center and Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who agreed to answer our questions.

What is your concrete role in the ERN-EYE network?

As HCP representative of Leiden University Medical Center and Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, I strive to contribute as much as possible from our centers to the applicable aspects of ERN-EYE. As co-chair of Transversal Working Group 8 (Research), together with Dominik Fischer from Tübingen, I would like to initiate ERN-wide research studies to improve the care for patients with rare eye disease, and to show the added value of these important EU-wide networks.

In your opinion, what is the most important issue ERN-EYE could overcome?

For me, this would be to overcome differences in quality of patient care throughout EU member countries. We are quite spoiled with a great healthcare system in this regard in the Netherlands, but I realize that this is not the case in other EU countries.

What are the main challenges of the network?

These include for instance to overcome such differences in quality of care for rare eye diseases within the EU, to establish a joint rare eye disease database, and to enable EU-wide virtual clinics involving relevant experts.

And the best advances?

I am deeply impressed by the energy and hard work of Prof. Dollfus and her team who were able to construct the ERN-EYE project at such a pace and with such success. This is very motivating, and forms the perfect basis to grow all different branches of the project.

What is your vision for the future of ERN-EYE?

Experiencing that the first meetings were already so successful and full of enthusiasm, bringing together motivated rare eye disease experts from all over Europe, makes me confident that ERN-EYE will be able to live up to its goals and expectations.