ASCRS News
Summer 2025

by Steve Speares
ASCRS Executive Director

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

—Winnie the Pooh

The process and cadence of the transition of ASCRS Executive Officers is as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. It’s our governance in action. The annual rotation allows for new perspectives and backgrounds to influence the way ASCRS charts annual objectives and infuses new ideas for the Society to pursue.

Our organization has been fortunate to have icons as past presidents—Charles Kelman, MD, Robert Sinskey, MD, Marguerite McDonald, MD, and Richard Lindstrom, MD, to name a few. Each president brings the number one attribute required of a president—selfless service to the Society and its members. It’s simply not possible to reach this role without having demonstrated that trait through previous roles and responsibilities. As ASCRS welcomed Francis Mah, MD, to the 2025 presidency in Los Angeles, California, we bid adieu to Vance Thompson, MD. Some presidents are ready to say goodbye to the role and can’t hand it off fast enough. It’s a thankless job with few perks and multiple unplanned responsibilities.  

But others relish the opportunity to serve—the privilege of speaking on behalf of their colleagues and friends, the responsibility to advocate for the best interests of U.S. anterior segment surgeons, embracing the unpredictability of the role’s tasks while continuing to perform their “day job” of caring for their practice’s patients. These are the presidents who leave a mark.

Vance has certainly left his mark as ASCRS President. From day one he was fully engaged and eager to support whatever needs we had. He was constantly enthusiastic (no big surprise for those who know him) and had a clear mandate for ASCRS to begin building a stronger effort toward providing surgeons more education on business proficiency. Vance Thompson Vision has seen the benefits of adopting premium technologies and providing patients with a broader range of options in their treatment path.

While these benefits have improved the economic performance of his practice, they have also transformed how his staff operates and cares for patients. Service is not just a hollow motto but a fundamental attribute of every aspect of their interactions with patients and each other. Vance wanted to openly transfer this knowledge for the benefit of patients, practices, and ASCRS members. Thus, the Business of Refractive Cataract Surgery (BRiCS) Summit was born.

The inaugural BRiCS Summit was held last September in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Vance put together a diverse, all-star faculty who have had tremendous success with their own unique approaches to satisfying patients. Surgeons and administrators shared the pearls and learnings from nearly two decades of development of the premium IOL category, and attendees found a uniquely warm and welcoming environment conducive to safe conversations and judgment- free assessments of how they currently worked.

In my 34 years of ophthalmology, 27 on the industry side and 7 on the society side, I have never seen a more effective program put together. And it all started with the approach from Vance. His desire to see practices grow their competency is genuine. It’s not about “Should I choose this lens or that lens?” but rather about the way the practice is organized and functions, the essential investments in building culture and staff proficiency, and the enormity of investing time with patients to really listen and understand their goals and desires. It was a remarkable weekend.

Eight months later, attendees from the BRiCS Summit continue to report back increasing penetration primarily buoyed by the structural and cultural changes put in place at their practices. The attendees also continue to share questions, observations, and challenges with faculty and each other. Rome was not built in a day, and the attendees understand the effort required to achieve continued success.

As we approached the 2025 Annual Meeting, it began to dawn on Vance that his time as president was drawing to a close. He was candid, as he always is: “I’m really going to miss being president. This has meant so much to me, and getting to know the staff and all they do for us, I just feel like there was more for me to do.” That’s Vance Thompson. He is never satisfied and always eager to serve and please.

He even took the time the final day of the 2025 Annual Meeting to put on a wine tasting seminar for our entire staff. After a long, hard week of work, there he was with Sam Garg, MD, and Dr. Mah serving wines from his vineyard to all of the ASCRS team, passionate, engaged, and appreciative of all they had done for him over the past year.  

One of the great discoveries this year was learning who Vance’s literary hero is. It makes complete sense when you hear him regale in the exploits of Winnie the Pooh—as on brand as it gets.  

The ASCRS staff will be forever grateful for the contributions of Vance Thompson as president. We will always, “think, think, think” about what a great leader he has been.