ASCRS News: ASCRS Annual Meeting preview
Spring 2025
by Ellen Stodola
Editorial Co-Director
ASCRS Subspecialty Day will take place on Friday, April 25, ahead of the official kickoff of the main 2025 ASCRS Annual Meeting. This year, attendees can expect exciting programs focusing on refractive, cornea, and glaucoma topics. The program chairs discussed what they’re most looking forward to.
Cornea Day
Marjan Farid, MD, and Francis Mah, MD, will serve as co-chairs of Cornea Day.
One of the changes this year is to have a mixture of ASCRS Cornea Clinical Committee members and seasoned experts as moderators for each of the sessions. “One of the things that’s important is that historical or institutional knowledge to fill out the background,” Dr. Mah said.
“We tried to put together an exciting program with surgical as well as inflammatory and infectious cornea to try to change up some of the sessions,” he continued, adding that dry eye and ocular surface disease will also be covered.
One of the most important and exciting things, Dr. Mah said, is the addition of a named lecture to the program in honor of Edward Holland, MD. “We’re excited to announce the Edward Holland, MD, Lecture, and he will be giving that this year. We think that this will add a great deal to Cornea Day.”
Dr. Farid said that the Holland Lecture honors a true pioneer in the field of cornea. Dr. Holland has left his mark as one of the great educators in corneal disease, she said. “Specifically, he has pioneered treatment protocols in severe ocular surface disease and continues to educate and mentor cornea specialists in the management of all corneal diseases. Additionally, he has served the ASCRS membership as a past president and program chair of the Annual Meeting for more than a decade, only recently passing on the torch. We are honored to have Dr. Holland give the first lecture at the 2025 Cornea Day,” she said.
This lecture will be followed by a panel of experts discussing different approaches to the management of three cases of severe ocular surface disease, moderated by Dr. Farid and Clara Chan, MD.
Cornea Day will also feature a deep dive into Fuchs dystrophy and the exciting new technologies in the diagnosis and therapeutics of corneal endothelial disease, Dr. Farid said. This section will be moderated by two leaders in this field, Francis Price Jr., MD, and Winston Chamberlain, MD, PhD.
Office-based corneal disease management including infectious keratitis, OSSN, and keratoconus will be featured in a session moderated by Dr. Mah and Elmer Tu, MD. “We are bringing back one of the classic favorite sections of the day, a surgical video section, that will highlight complex corneal cases and will be moderated by Brandon Ayres, MD, and Julie Schallhorn, MD,” Dr. Farid said. The program will end with a “Dry Eye Corner,” covering recent updates and continued expansion of diagnostics and therapeutics in the space, moderated by Karolinne Rocha, MD, PhD, and Michelle Rhee, MD.
“We have truly gathered an all-star team of moderators and speakers to bring our membership the best Cornea Day they have ever seen,” Dr. Farid said. “We hope to see you there!”
Glaucoma Day
This year’s Glaucoma Day will be co-chaired by Nathan Radcliffe, MD, and Manjool Shah, MD. The program will feature an exciting variety of sessions, including lectures and video case presentations.
The program will kick off with the ASCRS/AGS combined symposium, which this year will focus on landmark MIGS trials. Other morning sessions will focus on “Glaukomtecken” and “Medications, Lasers, & Lifestyle.” An afternoon surgical spotlight will feature a variety of case presentations and panel discussion.
This year’s Stephen A. Obstbaum, MD, Honored Lecture will be given by Douglas Rhee, MD, a past president of ASCRS.
The Glaucoma Day program will conclude with the “15th Annual Video Session: Complications and a Reay of Hope,” where presenters will share complicated case videos, with audience members voting for the best video at the end of the session.
“This year’s Glaucoma Day has something for everyone and is not to be missed,” Dr. Radcliffe said. “The field of glaucoma is rapidly evolving, and the program will seek to cover some of these many advancements in clinical data, laser therapy, drug delivery, medications, surgical techniques, and more.”
Refractive Day
Daniel Chang, MD, and George Waring IV, MD, co-chairs of Refractive Day, are excited for the Back to the Future-themed program. This is a nod both to the continued celebration of the 50th anniversary of ASCRS and 50th Annual Meeting, as well as the 30th anniversary of the FDA approval of the excimer laser for photorefractive keratectomy.
“We used the Back to the Future theme to both look back at our past to try to learn from the wisdom of the last 50 and 30 years, as well as to look to the future,” Dr. Chang said.
The program will be comprised of five sessions. The first will cover corneal refractive diagnostics and treatments.
The program will also feature the Steinert Lecture, this year to be given by Ronald Krueger, MD, a pioneer in refractive surgery. Dr. Krueger will present “Remembering and Learning From 30 Years of the Excimer Laser.”
The third session will focus on the past, present, and future of cataract refractive surgery. Afternoon programming will take a slightly different direction, with a session highlighting pearls from five decades of cataract and refractive surgery. Pioneers in the field, like Marguerite McDonald, MD, Douglas Koch, MD, Vance Thompson, MD, will share their pearls.
The program will wrap up with a session featuring the “wildest refractive complication videos.” Complications are always important to highlight and understand because that’s your chance to make a difference, Dr. Chang said.
Dr. Waring said this year’s Refractive Day will be a milestone event. “Annually, it’s a very well attended and highly anticipated event,” he said.
About the physicians
Daniel Chang, MD
Cataract and Refractive Surgeon
Empire Eye and Laser Center
Bakersfield, California
Marjan Farid, MD
Director of Cornea, Cataract, and Refractive Surgery
Gavin Herbert Eye Institute
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, California
Francis Mah, MD
Director, Cornea Service
Scripps Clinic
La Jolla, California
Nathan Radcliffe, MD
New York Ophthalmology
New York Eye Surgery Center
New York, New York
Manjool Shah, MD
Kellogg Eye Center
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
George Waring IV, MD
Waring Vision Institute
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
Contact
Chang: dchang@empireeyeandlaser.com
Farid: mfarid@hs.uci.edu
Mah: Mah.Francis@scrippshealth.org
Radcliffe: drradcliffe@gmail.com
Waring: georgewaringiv@gmail.com
