ASCRS News: Annual Meeting Preview
July 2021
ASCRS Subspecialty Day will take place on Friday, July 23, and will include the ASCRS Refractive Day, ASCRS Cornea Day, and ASCRS Glaucoma Day programs. The chairs of these programs spoke to EyeWorld about what attendees can expect.
Refractive Day
ASCRS Refractive Day is chaired by Eric Donnenfeld, MD, Cathleen McCabe, MD, and Vance Thompson, MD, with more than 50 ophthalmologists invited as expert faculty.
The program chairs described it as “an exciting opportunity for clinicians to evaluate the efficacy of conventional and new advanced technologies to improve the preoperative evaluation and postoperative results of patients undergoing cornea and lens-based refractive surgery.”
“We will have sessions covering the advantages and disadvantages of new refractive IOL materials, design, and cornea technologies, such as trifocals, extended depth of focus IOLs, topographic and wavefront ablations, and SMILE,” Drs. Donnenfeld, McCabe, and Thompson said.
“We are excited to have the Steinert Refractive Lecture given by the first person to perform excimer laser photoablation, Marguerite McDonald, MD, who will speak about presbyopia-correcting topical medications,” they said. “Refractive Day will be the one stop for everything attendees need to know about refractive cornea and cataract surgery with the perfect mix of didactic and case-based presentations.”
Cornea Day
Edward Holland, MD, and Francis Mah, MD, serve as chairs of this year’s Cornea Day.
“We’re very excited about this year’s Cornea Day, sponsored by the ASCRS Cornea Clinical Committee,” Dr. Holland said. “We will have an outstanding program that’s geared toward corneal specialists but will also have a lot of information for comprehensive ophthalmologists.”
There will be a video-based session on cornea disasters, as well as a focus on lamellar corneal surgery. Ocular surface disease will be the topic of one of the afternoon sessions. “Ocular surface disease affects every aspect of ophthalmology, and therefore, it is a very important topic for all clinicians,” Dr. Holland said. Additionally, a session on perspectives in cornea looking at “where we were and where we’re going” will feature presentations from well-established specialists in the field. “It will be a fun session because I think it’s important to understand mistakes and successes in the past to help guide us for the future,” he said.
Glaucoma Day
Chaired by Leon Herndon Jr., MD, with 13 experts on the program committee and two dozen invited faculty, Glaucoma Day will feature cutting-edge treatment options and clinical advances that can ultimately improve patient outcomes.
“The 2021 ASCRS Glaucoma Day will be an outstanding opportunity for attendees to keep abreast of the rapidly changing field of glaucoma,” Dr. Herndon said. “The latest diagnostic and therapeutic options for glaucoma patients will be discussed and debated by experts in the field.”
Highlights include a keynote lecture by Douglas Rhee, MD, focusing on future trends in glaucoma care. Another feature is the 2021 Stephen A. Obstbaum, MD, Honored Lecture. This year the lecture will be a panel of past ASCRS glaucoma leadership. Dr. Herndon said this panel—Reay Brown, MD, Thomas Samuelson, MD, Richard Lewis, MD, and Dr. Rhee—will discuss their collective observations of innovations in ophthalmology in general and glaucoma in particular that have made the largest impacts on their careers.
Contact
Donnenfeld: ericdonnenfeld@gmail.com
Herndon: leon.herndon@duke.edu
Holland: eholland@holprovision.com
McCabe: cmccabe13@hotmail.com
Thompson: vance.thompson@vancethompsonvision.com
