Eyeworld

Archives EyeWorld ASCRS S AT U R DAY, M AY 16 , 2 0 2 0 | AS C R S V I R T U A L A N N U A L M E E T I N G DAILY NEWS HIGHLIGHTS ASCRS FOUNDATION UPDATE P. 6 FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW P. 12 OPS WINNING IMAGES P. 28 way to help our members with the recovery process," he said. The meeting will feature more than 30 CME credits and more than 400 hours of content, and special sessions will highlight COVID-19-related content. Dr. Kim started by congrat- ulating and thanking Edward Holland, MD, chair of the ASCRS Program Committee, Steve Speares, ASCRS execu- tive director, ASCRS staff and leadership, industry sponsors, and participating faculty for by Ellen Stodola Editorial Co-Director T hough the ASCRS An- nual Meeting looks a bit different this year in its new, virtual for- mat, Terry Kim, MD, incoming president of ASCRS, said that it's a major step forward to ad- dress the current crisis, and he emphasized all the efforts that ASCRS is making to guide its members through these chal- lenging times. The Virtual Annual Meet- ing is an enormous initiative in terms of time and resources that ASCRS decided to under- take to address the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Kim said. "We took this important step because we thought it would be the best their collaboration to make the very first Virtual Annual Meeting a reality. "We've never done a virtual meeting before, and due to having to cancel our Annual Meeting in Bos- ton fairly late, we didn't have much time to put this together. But thanks to the hard work and long hours put in by our Program Committee and ASCRS staff, we were able to produce a high-quality virtual Shifting gears to reflect on his year as president of ASCRS, Dr. Mamalis took a moment to pause and preface. "This terri- ble crisis in the whole country and what the entire profession is going through makes it diffi- cult to sit down and talk about what accomplishments have been done over the past year," Dr. Mamalis said. That said, he mentioned the rebranding of ASCRS that launched a year ago, making it clear what ASCRS does for its members and for surgeons. It's slogan—For surgeons. For you.—Dr. Mamalis said shows the commitment the society has for surgeons. "This is truly by Liz Hillman Editorial Co-Director N ick Mamalis, MD, outgoing president of ASCRS, shared his thoughts on the ASCRS Virtual Annual Meeting and his presidency as a whole. First, he gave "huge kudos" to the ASCRS staff and the Program Committee who took the full ASCRS Annual Meeting and distilled it into a 2-day virtual meeting in an extremely short period of time. "I'm very grateful that we were able to put togeth- er this meeting virtually," Dr. Mamalis said. "I am incredibly impressed at the amount of work everyone has been doing putting this together." Features he is excited for include the two-part "Turning the Lights Back On" session, which he said will be extremely timely for attendees. "The sessions on getting the practice going again, what are the steps to doing this … I think these are going to give invaluable information for people who are going through the process of restarting their practices," he said, adding later that these sessions come at a time when many states are be- ginning to loosen restrictions. He also noted the discus- sion with Scott Gottlieb, MD, former head of the FDA, who Dr. Mamalis said will likely offer valuable insights into this process. "The virtual meeting will also have the usual tremendous education that goes on at the ASCRS Annual Meeting," Dr. Mamalis said, mentioning that it even has a virtual exhibit hall for attendees to interact with industry representatives. continued on page 4 continued on page 3 Thoughts from outgoing ASCRS President Nick Mamalis, MD Incoming ASCRS President Terry Kim, MD, speaks about current situation and what ASCRS is doing to address this F R I DAY, J U LY 2 3 , 2 0 2 1 | A S C R S A N N UA L M E E T I N G DAILY NEWS EyeWorld: What was it like com- ing on as ASCRS president at the beginning of the pandemic? Dr. Kim: As I was taking on my role as president, I never imag- ined I'd face the immediate challenges that our organization had to face, but I was prepared to take on that challenge. I was thankful to have a strong and supportive organization in terms of the ASCRS staff, executive director, Executive Committee, and Governing Board to help nav- igate through the difficulties. For anyone dealing with this crisis, it was a dynamic, ever-evolving situ- ation; it was never just one thing. There were adjustments that were constantly being made in terms of our clinical care protocols, edu- cational offerings, governmental relief initiatives, and communica- tion with members. continued on page 4 continued on page 3 FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT US AT BOOTH #5201 SO YOUR PATIENTS DON'T HAVE TO © 2021 Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. All rights reserved. DEXTENZA is a registered trademark of Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. PP-US-DX-0323 OT_ASCRS_Daily_News_Banner_MECH_07Jul2021.indd 4 OT_ASCRS_Daily_News_Banner_MECH_07Jul2021.indd 4 7/14/21 11:28 AM 7/14/21 11:28 AM Visit Booth 5208 to Hear What's New at BVI BVI and all other trademarks (unless noted otherwise) are property of BVI. BVI ©2021 Outgoing ASCRS president reflects on unprecedented year A Q&A with ASCRS president Richard Hoffman, MD R ichard Hoffman, MD, the current ASCRS president, has been involved with ASCRS, EyeWorld, and the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery for years. He shared his thoughts on his presidency and his vision for the society. T erry Kim, MD, served as ASCRS president during a year full of unprecedent- ed challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pan- demic. He reflected on his year as president, the challenges and how ASCRS addressed them, import- ant initiatives, and more. EyeWorld: How and when did you first become involved with ASCRS? Dr. Hoffman: I became involved with ASCRS in the mid-1990s, in part due to the work my part- ner, Howard Fine, MD, had been doing with ASCRS. Howard was teaching at meetings and in- volved in the Governing Board and Executive Committee and Daily News In 2019, ASCRS again conducted its Clinical Survey, which identifies education gaps by compiling data from respondents about their experiences across specialties. The survey in- cluded questions on cataract, refractive, cor- nea, glaucoma, and retina surgery. Information collected is used by ASCRS to guide educational initiatives and activities. The 2019 survey had 1,204 total ASCRS member respondents, with 54.9% practicing in the U.S. and 45.1% practicing elsewhere. Of the respondents, 73.3% were male and 26.7% were female. The survey respondents had a wide range of experience, from those cur- rently in residency or fellowship (11.2%) to those who have been in practice more than 30 years (17.3%). The largest percentage of respondents was those who have been in practice 21–30 years (25.3%), and 64.1% of respondents have been in practice for more than 10 years. Respondents also varied in where they perform surgery, with the largest percentage (32%) performing surgery in a surgeon-owned ASC. CLINICAL SURVEY 2019 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2019 ASCRS CLINICAL SURVEY HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN IN PRACTICE? WHERE IS YOUR PRIMARY SURGERY LOCATION? (Select all that apply.) WHERE PRACTICE IS LOCATED MALE VS. FEMALE RESPONDENTS SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD JUNE 2022 Supported by CONNECTING THE DOTS: Advancements in cataract surgery The ASCRS Foundation symposium at the 2026 ASCRS Annual Meeting T he ASCRS Foundation sym- posium at the 2026 ASCRS Annual Meeting highlighted domestic humanitarian eyecare and featured an es- teemed panel who shared their experi- ences. The symposium was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Vision and Carl Zeiss Meditec, and it also recognized this year's Operation Sight Volunteer of the Year, Judith Kirby, MD. The session was moderated by Zaina Al-Mohtaseb, MD, chair of the ASCRS Foundation, Susan MacDonald, MD, immediate past chair of the ASCRS Foundation, and Cathleen McCabe, MD. It also featured Vance Thompson, MD, Omar Shakir, MD, MBA, Rajesh Rajpal, MD, Nikki Fedoravicius, MPH, Lori McCoy, COA, Hayley Boling, MBA, COE, Jeffrey Levenson, MD, Lisa Park, MD, and Sarah Duval, COE, COA. At Dr. Thompson's private practice, he said Operation Sight, the ASCRS Foundation's U.S.-based charitable VOLUNTEERISM IN DOMESTIC HUMANITARIAN EYECARE: BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE cataract surgery program, has been a process and a starting point. Some- times you don't know exactly what to do when you're trying to figure out the needs. "It's nice for us to have a starting point. We'll usually have our administrator start that process, and the Operation Sight team is so good at showing you the way," he said. Dr. MacDonald added that one of the most wonderful things about Operation Sight is that it can help patients find you, but it can also help you figure out the patient. It's a great partnership between physicians and the ASCRS Foundation, she said. Encouraging involvement with Operation Sight, Ms. Duval shared some of the ways that physicians and their practices can work with Operation Sight: 1. You have a patient in your practice who doesn't have insurance and are unsure how to pay. You can send that patient to Operation Sight. Ms. Duval will do the administrative work to gather financial informa- tion and vet the patient to make sure they meet the qualifications. If they're approved, she will either send them back to the physician/ practice to perform charitable sur- gery or she will find someone who will do the surgery. 2. Someone finds ASCRS Foundation/ Operation Sight organically. They know they have a cataract and can't afford it. They apply, they're vetted, and Ms. Duval reaches out to the network of volunteer surgeons who are as close to that patient's home as possible. 3. There are also Operation Sight grantees, where the practice has a verified 501(c)(3) foundation, and once a year, they can apply to Oper- ation Sight. "We grant them money from our foundation to theirs, and they use that money to offset costs of their charitable care throughout the year. They also report twice a year with impact reports," she said. Ms. Duval encouraged everyone to visit the Operation Sight website (operationsightusa.org) to learn more about the process and how to become a volunteer surgeon. Dr. Thompson said that for practices that want to help but are trying to figure out a starting point, the Operation Sight program can help guide them. Source: ASCRS Drs. Al-Mohtaseb, MacDonald, and McCabe moderated the symposium, in addition to speaking about their own experiences with domestic humanitarian eyecare. Source: ASCRS Supplements Growing your practice with new techniques and technologies FOR SURGEONS. FOR YOU. WWW.EYEWORLD.ORG JUNE 2022 VOLUME 27, NUMBER 2 2022 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING RECAP P. 38 how digital advances are accelerating across the specialty DIGITAL DIGITAL TOOLS FOR OPHTHALMIC PRACTICE MANAGEMENT VISUAL SIMULATORS IN OPHTHALMOLOGY THE RISE OF ROBOTIC CATARACT SURGERY WWW.EYEWORLD.ORG FOR SURGEONS. FOR YOU. SUMMER 2026 VOLUME 31, NUMBER 2 EyeWorld.org ASCRS ASCRS News resources EyeWorldOnsite.org

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