ASCRS News
July 2021

by Eric Donnenfeld, MD
Chief Medical Editor

At our last in-person ASCRS Annual Meeting in 2019, I closed the doors on the meeting with the final and one of my favorite sessions, the Best of ASCRS. Thought leaders selected and presented the most important cataract, cornea, refractive, and glaucoma papers from the meeting, and a panel of experts distilled and discussed the take-home messages for the stalwart attendees staying to the very end.  

As I left the cavernous San Diego Convention Center inhabited by the last few attendees making their way to the exit to begin their trip home, I felt invigorated by my experience at the ASCRS Annual Meeting and a little sad that I presumed it would be another year before I would have the opportunity to reenergize my passion for ophthalmology. I could not help but start thinking about how exciting the ASCRS Annual Meeting was going to be the following year.

The ASCRS Annual Meeting is acknowledged as the finest meeting in the world for the anterior segment surgeon. It is an educational event with painstakingly organized symposia, keynote addresses, courses, and EyeWorld corporate events providing state-of-the-art information. However, the ASCRS Annual Meeting is more than conventional education. There is a spectacle of tactile experiences that include visiting the Exhibit Hall floor to have a hands-on evaluation of the new technology on display; running into colleagues, teachers, and students who were, and remain, an important part of our lives; and receiving a firm handshake or embrace from those special people. Often the very best educational experience is an impromptu exchange of ideas that materializes out of nowhere.   

The ASCRS Annual Meeting is a mini-marathon condensed into a few remarkable days. We begin early in the morning, plan our attack on the three-ring circus of events to attend, and extend the day into the evening with dinners and events with people we often only have the opportunity to see a few times a year. I always leave the meeting a little sleep deprived and better for the experience.

2020 was intended to be the de facto year of ophthalmology. Sadly, the 2020 ASCRS Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, never occurred. Zoom webinars were interesting, but sitting in my sweatpants watching a screen in no way compares to the exhilaration of being there in person. 

I look forward to Eyecelerator, the industry event of ASCRS and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) for investors, start-up companies, the leadership of important companies, and ophthalmologists, on July 22.  

This is followed by ASCRS Subspecialty Day for cornea, glaucoma, and refractive surgery on July 23.

The ASCRS Annual Meeting officially begins on Saturday, and I look forward to so many extraordinary events, including the Opening General Session, Binkhorst Lecture by Richard Lewis, MD, the Sunday General Session with Scott Gottlieb, MD, former FDA commissioner and a leading expert on COVID-19, the inaugural Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, Lecture by Edward Holland, MD, and the Charles D. Kelman, MD, Innovator’s Lecture by Stephen Slade, MD, on Monday. On Tuesday, we end with X-Rounds: Refractive Cataract Surgery to the Max, and if you want to close the doors with me, stay for the final event, the Best of ASCRS.

For many of us, life has changed, and I think we have sheltered in place for far too long. I am looking forward to a very special reaffirmation of the celebration of ophthalmology that is the ASCRS Annual Meeting this July in Las Vegas, Nevada.