EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/1516463
FOCUSING ON THE THREE PILLARS OF THE SOCIETY 42 | SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD A publication with different viewpoints, perspective, and balance EyeWorld becomes the ASCRS member magazine In 1996, ASCRS launched EyeWorld magazine. It began as a place for doctors to be able to report on com- plications and new techniques, Mr. Karcher said. In some respects, Mr. Karcher continued, EyeWorld was a publication that was willing to address issues, like com- plications with certain products, more aggressively and honestly than other publications at the time. Ideas for articles came from a myriad of sources, in- cluding presentations from the Annual Meeting and other national and regional meetings. Doctors didn't submit articles; reporters/writers were gathering the in- formation from a range of experts in the field. Dr. McDonald, the founding chief medical editor of EyeWorld, worked daily with the executive editor. "We talked to each other constantly," she said. "ere was no texting back then, just quick conversations, maybe 7 or 8 times a day." Dr. McDonald is proud of the precedent set with Eye- World to have multiple sources for each article. "At the time, many companies would hire professional writers to write a beautiful article about their product, give it to a magazine, and it would get published. We didn't do that. If someone gave us an article like that, we had oth- ers weigh in." Dr. McDonald also described the challenge of bring- ing in ad revenue when EyeWorld first launched, being a new magazine in the ophthalmic space. "We knocked on a lot of doors; I think the quality of the magazine with all those sources—we became known for that," she said. It also encompassed the spirit of ASCRS, with a lot of late-breaking news. Now physicians can watch content and meeting lec- tures from their homes, but in those days, coverage of the ASCRS Annual Meeting in EyeWorld helped ensure that members weren't missing out, Dr. McDonald said. e most important topics were the subject of the very next issue. e first two or three issues weren't quite as thick because there weren't too many advertisers, but it grew quickly, she said. "I framed the first cover, our very first cover, and that hung in my New Orleans office until Dr. McDonald, Mr. Karcher, and Pattye Whitmer Source: ASCRS e first EyeWorld cover (le), the first cover of the 2019 redesigned issue (center), and a 2023 cover (right) Source: ASCRS EyeWorld Chief Medical Editors Marguerite McDonald, MD 1996–2004 Stephen Obstbaum, MD 2002–2011 Stephen Lane, MD 2004–2011 Edward Holland, MD 2009–2011 David F. Chang, MD 2011–2015 Eric Donnenfeld, MD 2015–2022 Sumit "Sam" Garg, MD 2022–present