EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
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68 August 2014 Reporting from the 2014 ASEAN Ophthalmology Society (AOS) Congress Bangkok, Thailand EW MEETING REPORTER AOS 'comes together for ophthalmology' The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Paisan Ruamviboonsuk, MD, chairman of the ASEAN Ophthalmology Society (AOS) and AOS Organizing Commit- tee, was established for one thing: building a community together. The fact that representatives from the 10 member countries as well as from other countries in the region and elsewhere in the world gathered together in Bangkok despite "political instability," he said, demonstrates the key factor in community building: trust. "You believe in something bigger than fear and doubt," he said with barely contained passion, in his welcome remarks at the opening ceremony of the 1st AOS Congress. "You believe in friendship." "Today is the day we come together for ophthalmology." The 1st AOS Congress ran from July 9 to 11, and was held at the Bangkok Convention Centre at Cen- tral World, Bangkok, Thailand. The opening ceremony got the Congress up and running with a keynote ad- dress from Thailand's director gen- eral of the Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health, Suphan Srithamma, MD, who discussed "The role of ophthalmolo- gists in the ASEAN community." Since it was established on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok, Dr. Srithamma said, ASEAN has grown to encompass 10 countries, repre- senting 605 million people striving toward the goal of "one vision, one identity, one community." This goal, he said, also applies to ophthalmology, and so AOS. He saw AOS as potentially providing the opportunity to create a "pow- erful," "responsive," and "analytic" infrastructure, and serving as the "crucial driving force" to providing service, training, and research in ophthalmology, as the region strives to promote the highest standards of vision, culminating in the World Health Organization's Vision 2020 initiative—the elimination of all avoidable blindness by the year 2020. Following an intermission that featured a Thai drum dance and a pair of mythical creatures, the beau- tiful half-woman, half-swan Thep Kinnaree and a white Kirin, the representatives of each of the 10 member nations were called to join Dr. Ruamviboonsuk and Dr. Srithamma on the stage: Nayam Joshi, MD, Brunei Darussalam; Pok Thom, MD, Cambodian Ophthal- mological Society; Nila F. Moeloek, MD, PhD, Indonesian Ophthalmol- ogists Association; Khamphoua Southisombath, MD, Laos Oph- thalmology Society; Seng Kheong Fang, MD, Malaysian Society of Ophthalmology; Ko Ko Thant, MD, Myanmar Ophthalmological Associ- ation; Ruben Lim-Bon-Siong, MD, Philippine Academy of Ophthalmol- ogy; Heng Wee Jin, MD, College of Ophthalmologists, Singapore, and Lee Shu Yen, MD, Singapore Society of Ophthalmology; and Nguyen Trong Nhan, MD, Vietnam Ophthalmological Society. Rajvardhan Azad, MD, president of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, was also called to the stage. Together with Dr. Srithamma, Dr. Azad struck the drum held by the dancers, officially opening the 1st Congress of the AOS. In a symbolic gesture, all the representatives stood together hold- ing hands before leaving the stage. Keynote lectures examine challenges, opportunities, advances The main highlight of the first day of the 1st AOS Congress was a set of keynote lectures that examined the challenges and opportunities in modern ophthalmology in light of the formation of ASEAN, as well as some advances brought on by recent research. Reporting from the 1st ASEAN Ophthalmology Society Traditional Thai entertainers perform for the opening ceremony of the 1st ASEAN Ophthalmology Society Congress at the Bangkok Convention Centre at Central World.