Eyeworld

Cornea Society News – published quarterly by the Cornea Society 5 Cornea360 meeting to debut in April in Scottsdale C ornea360 is a new, 2-day meeting targeted to corneal specialists and those interested in diseas- es that affect the cornea and anterior segment. The meeting will be a collaboration among the Cornea Society, APEX, and CEDARS/ASPENS and will take place April 4–6, 2019 in Scotts- dale, Arizona. Topics to be highlighted include the ocular surface, surgical challenges, infection, keratoconus and ectasia, inflammation, and cutting-edge cornea. Marian Macsai, MD, Glen- view, Illinois, Elmer Tu, MD, Chicago, Kenneth Beckman, MD, Columbus, Ohio, and Joseph Tauber, MD, Kansas City, Missouri, were involved with the organization of the meeting. Dr. Tu, Dr. Beckman, and Dr. Tauber highlighted some of the unique aspects and reasons to get excited for this cornea-focused meeting. "We've been hearing from the membership of the Cornea Society for some time about the interest and need for a meeting solely dedicated to cornea research and practice," Dr. Tu said. "The meeting concept is a true amalgam of the three sponsoring societies, the Cornea Society, CEDARS/ASPENS, and APEX, all of which have their unique styles." Dr. Tu said he expects this to bring evidence, energy, and enthusiasm to the sessions. "While our emphasis is always evi- dence-based medicine, we have designed the meeting to be interactive and free flowing to encourage the exchange of clinical and research pearls that might not always find their way into the liter- ature," Dr. Tu said. "We have also built in time for personal interactions among attendees and faculty to create the colle- gial atmosphere characteristic of cornea specialists. "While we have designated faculty, we expect them to be only the begin- ning of our discussions on various top- ics," Dr. Tu continued. "The attendees bring different experiences and expertise and will be teaching the rest of us as much as we are teaching them." Dr. Tauber said he attended a meet- ing in Miami a couple of years ago that featured a wide range of international speakers and a variety of cornea topics, and he was impressed with the scientific quality of the talks and found himself not wanting to leave the session room. Dr. Tauber said he wanted to see some- thing like that meeting happen again, a high-quality meeting targeting the cur- rent and informed cornea specialist who still faces a wide range of unresolved clinical challenges. "We find there's a lot of exciting areas in cornea," he said. The field is a little fragmented in terms of there being a few subspecialty societies that have interest in this area, he said. "We thought it would be good to bring all the societies together to co-endorse a meeting." "For years, members of the Cor- nea Society and cornea specialists have had corneal meetings tied to AAO and ASCRS," Dr. Beckman said. "But they've never had a free-standing corneal-specif- ic meeting." It worked out that all three organizations had the idea to develop this sort of meeting at the same time, he said. The three groups decided to sit down and come up with something that would be exciting for the cornea specialist as well as the general ophthal- mologist who does a lot of cornea work, Dr. Beckman said. The meeting will highlight a num- ber of major topics in the cornea field. "If you look at the list, it seems like the bread and butter topics that you see for any other conference because they are recognized as the most important areas that cornea specialists practice in," Dr. Tu said. "Our topics and speakers, how- ever, will take it to the next level, blend- ing experience and science in a way that there isn't an opportunity to do in traditional didactic-style meetings." Dr. Tauber said he found it easy to find a number of topics that he was interested in and that explored problems that confront him. Dr. Beckman added that the format of the meeting will be unique. "We didn't want it to just be someone at the podium," he said. "We want it to be interactive and fun." The meeting will feature panel discussions, audience participation, and more. "We want it to be a fun, high tech, innovative meeting," Dr. Beckman said. "I think it is important to bring the organizations together," Dr. Tu said. "Al- though the membership overlaps among the three entities, there are different expectations from the organizations' meetings." They wanted the meeting to have broad appeal with all three societ- ies' strong commitment to the highest level of scientific rigor, he said. CN

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