Eyeworld

18 | EYEWORLD | AUGUST 2020 ASCRS NEWS interact with faculty live when able or have the option to watch later without the interactive component." Topics to be covered in the virtual series in- clude "Hitting the Refractive Target," "Our Re- fractive IOL Armamentarium," "Patient Eval- uation and Selection," "Patient Education and Counseling," "Refractive IOL Practice Manage- ment," "Managing Complications and Patient Dissatisfaction," "Case Studies in Patient IOL Selection and Management," "Adjunct Refrac- tive Cataract Technology," and "What's Ahead in 2021 and Beyond?" The first webinar will take place on August 15 and then biweekly, with the last one on December 5. Other members of the program committee include Kevin Miller, MD, Vance Thompson, MD, and Sumit "Sam" Garg, MD, who chair the ASCRS Cataract, Refractive Surgery, and Young Eye Surgeons Clinical Committees, respectfully. "Our hope is that this new program will bring the pearls and art of our faculty to attend- ees in their own home at a convenient time and as a reference source long beyond the delivery of the program," Dr. Donaldson said. "We're very excited to be able to create and deliver this program that we think can be a game chang- er in the way we teach and practice cataract surgery." Visit https://ascrs.org/20-happy-in-2020 for more information and to register for "20/Happy in 2020." Survey reveals cataract surgeon, staff attitudes toward OR waste continued from page 17 S tudies have already sought to quantify the environmental impact and cost of providing healthcare and its associated waste. Now, a survey of predominant- ly North American cataract surgeons evaluated their attitudes toward such waste and sustainability as a whole. Overall, the survey found 93% of respondents think the amount of waste produced during ophthalmology's most common procedure— cataract surgery—is excessive. 1 Just one cataract surgery, according to a previously published study from the U.K., can generate carbon emissions similar to driving a car 310 miles. 2 In the U.S., a study that looked at unused medical waste associated with cataract surgery from four different sites found 43% of all opened pharmaceuticals went unused. 3 In contrast, a study of phacoemulsification at the Aravind Eye Care System in India, which uses mainly disposable supplies (including gloves, gowns, tubing, irrigation bottles, instru- ments, and pharmaceuticals), found it generates 250 grams of waste per phaco and nearly 6 kg of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases. 4 That's 5% of the U.K.'s carbon footprint for the same procedure. "It's one thing to have data on the footprint of a surgery and another to understand how that data will be received," said Cassandra Thiel, PhD, a coauthor of the survey alongside David F. Chang, MD, who wrote the paper on behalf of the Ophthalmic Instrument Cleaning and Sterilization (OICS) Task Force. Members of ASCRS, AAO, the Outpatient Ophthalmic Sur- gery Society, and the Canadian Ophthalmology Society—the four societies represented on the task force—were surveyed. "The survey helps us understand how clinicians think about these topics. What do they want? What would they be comfortable doing? What would they not be comfortable doing? Why? The survey helps us understand where we have existing leverage to make changes and where we have obstacles we would need to overcome in order to make changes." About the sources David F. Chang, MD Clinical professor University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, California Cathleen McCabe, MD Medical director The Eye Associates Sarasota, Florida Cassandra Thiel, PhD Assistant professor Departments of Population Health and Ophthalmology New York University Grossman School of Medicine New York, New York Jeffrey Whitman, MD President, chief surgeon Key-Whitman Eye Center Dallas, Texas by Liz Hillman Editorial Co-Director

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