As we enter 2009, an issue at the forefront of everyone's minds, no matter what their country or their industry, is the economy.

Here at Ophthalmology Times Europe, we were interested to see how you think the seemingly ever-worsening economic climate would impact on professional expenditure this year, and we were surprised by the results of our enquiries.

In answer to the question "How do you think your professional expenditure will change in 2009 compared with 2008?",¹ only 32% of survey respondents answered that they were planning to reduce their expenditure (to varying degrees) this year. The most common single response was "I plan to spend about the same" (29%), and the remaining 39% are in fact planning to increase professional expenditure this year to varying degrees.

Despite the current economic climate, the robust nature of the ophthalmology market isn't too surprising, especially in light of a results from a survey that we ran at the end of 2008, to which 68% of respondents stated that their patient numbers were increasing.² Although the healthcare industry is relatively well insulated against economic fluctuations, a proportion of the procedures carried out in the ophthalmology field, such as LASIK, are elective, which leaves this segment of the market vulnerable during times of economic hardship. However, elective surgery does only account for a small portion of overall ophthalmic surgical procedures and, as such, it appears that the ophthalmology industry has been impacted less than other industries by the economic decline.

The polarity of the responses to the question "How much do you plan to spend on new products and equipment this year?"³ was striking. In contrast to earlier results, this survey revealed that ophthalmologists in fact intend to spend either very little or very large sums in 2009: a large proportion of respondents (33%) are expecting to spend over €500,000 on new products and equipment, although slightly more (38%) intend to spend no more than €50,000.

Overall, however, despite the relative caution in terms of money spent on acquiring new products and equipment, it seems that the European ophthalmology market is starting 2009 from a healthy position.

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1. OTE online survey; http://www.oteurope.com/, December 2008.

2. OTE online survey; http://www.oteurope.com/, November 2008.

3. OTE online survey; http://www.oteurope.com/, January 2009. Results correct at the time of going to press.