ASCRS News
June 2022
Douglas Rhee, MD, became president of ASCRS at the 2022 ASCRS Annual Meeting. He spoke with EyeWorld about his thoughts on the current and future state of the society and his insights on ophthalmology as a whole.
EyeWorld: How and when did you first become involved with ASCRS?
Dr. Rhee: I first started coming to the ASCRS Annual Meeting in 1999. I was a senior resident. It happened to be in Philadelphia, and that’s where I was doing my residency, so I decided to check it out. I became involved with the organization itself when I was invited by Reay Brown, MD, to serve on the Glaucoma Clinical Committee in 2006.
EyeWorld: Over this time, what drove your continued engagement with ASCRS?
Dr. Rhee: Number one, it was the people. I felt that the organization valued my contributions and participation. Second, the ethos of ASCRS and the educational content that we provide is very cutting edge and practical. It hits the button of innovation, but ASCRS is also incredibly practical. It’s information that I can take home immediately after returning from the meeting and apply to the benefit of my patients and my practice. Many of the techniques that I routinely use were learned from my colleagues at ASCRS.
EyeWorld: What have been some of ASCRS’ highlight initiatives in recent years?
Dr. Rhee: Our first mission is always to educate, and we have had great success with providing practical and cutting-edge information. I think that we do a great job with hands-on, skills transfer courses.
ASCRS has also provided multiple venues at the national and regional level and at times in collaboration with international, like-minded societies to provide a collegial and convivial atmosphere in order to exchange information.
In terms of advocacy, we need to have the infrastructure and support in order to deliver the best practice medical care. I think ASCRS has been a leader in advocating for the benefit of our patients and our practitioners.
Furthermore, the domestic and international branches of the ASCRS Foundation have directly benefited thousands of patients within the U.S. and tens of thousands both directly and indirectly internationally through our numerous endeavors over the years.
EyeWorld: What do you hope to focus your time on as president?
Dr. Rhee: I think that our field continues to face both the direct effect of the global pandemic and some of the secondary effects, which include a nationwide labor shortage affecting ophthalmology along with numerous sectors within our economy. In addition, we have had changes to reimbursement and regulation that impact our ability to provide the best and highest level of care in an efficient and safe manner. I’m hoping that during my tenure as president, we will be able to bring to fruition the culmination of some initiatives that have been ongoing for several years, in particular those utilizing science and evidence to improve the care of patients, improve accessibility to the best treatments, and provide the best value for our patients. We also hope to increase consciousness of the environmental impact the practice of ophthalmology has and positively improve that footprint.
There are two initiatives that I hope will come to fruition: our continued progress in developing a standard of care for endophthalmitis prophylaxis following cataract surgery and providing evidence to study the safety and necessity of our need to reduce unnecessary waste. We will continue to work with the various state and federal legislative bodies to optimize equitable access to the best level of eyecare for all our patients.
EyeWorld: What do you see as the future of ASCRS?
Dr. Rhee: Since our founding in 1974, the organization has been at the leading edge of cataract education and has made a commitment to educating practicing ophthalmologists with the skills they need to provide the highest level of care. Over the years, the society grew to be the leading educator for any anterior segment surgeon. ASCRS has engaged our trainees to introduce them to the field, advocated for our profession and our patients, proliferated the best clinical practices, and provided education for our colleague administrators and support staff, all for the benefit of patients.
What’s special about ASCRS is the focus on the anterior segment surgeon and the needs that our patients have. We are starting to branch out and work with groups that are pursuing evidence-based research to change the practice. We’ll always be the best educators, but instead of just educating on what the standard of care is currently, the society is moving toward becoming one of the forces to positively influence where that standard goes. We are one of the forces evolving what that standard of care is rather than just reporting on it.
EyeWorld: Do you have any closing thoughts?
Dr. Rhee: We’re all still emerging from the global pandemic and are part of various societal and world events that are shaping our society and our mindset. As part of our society’s evolution, how we choose to be educated and convene with our colleagues has been evolving. ASCRS held the first and very successful virtual meeting when the pandemic began. Also, it held the first in-person meeting to take place when it became safe to do so. I fully expect our society will continue to engage our members to provide the multiple modalities and venues that they want to best serve their educational needs.
