EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/618732
President's Message Dear Cornea Society members, O n the east coast these days, the weather is cold and dreary. To help keep me warm, I try and remember the beautiful sunny days of Las Vegas during the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting in November. What a terrific meeting! The Cornea Society was quite busy that week. We started with the Board of Directors meeting Thurs- day evening during which the following were elected to the Board of Directors: Eddie Alfonso, MS, Deepinder Dhaliwal, MD, Luigi Fontana, MD, and Shigeto Shimmura, MD. Thanks to all members-with-thesis for your nominations. The following officers were also selected to serve on the Executive Committee: Elmer Tu, MD, president elect, Kathryn Colby, MD, PhD, secretary treasury, Barry Lee, MD, vice president of industry relations, and Bennie Jeng, MD, vice president of international relations. Anthony Aldave, MD, was selected as the scientific program chair. All terms will begin January 1, 2016. I would like to especially thank the following members of the Board of Directors whose terms end December 31, 2015 for their service and hard work on behalf of the Society: Natalie Afshari, MD, and Sonia Yoo, MD. On Friday, we sponsored the Cornea Fellowship Director Breakfast followed by the combined Cornea Society and Eye Bank Association of America Fall Educational Symposium where Roger Steinert, MD, was given the Dohlman Teaching Award. It was particularly wonderful to be able to co-present this award with Dr. Dohlman, who is as sharp as ever! That night, Tony Aldave, MD, and Terry Kim, MD, reprised their roles as star DJs at the DJ Party at the Hard Rock Hotel. On Saturday, Stephen Kaufman, MD, Bennie Jeng, MD, and Shahzad Mian, MD, organized a fabulous Cornea Subspecialty Day, which had a record number of attendees. Later in the week, the Cornea Society Sym- posium, titled "Glaucoma and the Anterior Segment: Coexistence in Harmony or With Harm?" was a great success and was highlighted by Elisabeth Cohen, MD's wonderful Castroviejo Medalist Lecture on "Herpes Zoster." Last October, we ran our 3rd Cornea Fellows Educational Summit, which was another gigantic success. The Program Chairs were Barry Lee, MD, Kathryn Colby, MD, and Deepinder Dhaliwal, MD. The faculty included Esen Akpek, MD, Tony Aldave, MD, Jessica Ciralsky, MD, Bennie Jeng, MD, Elmer Tu, MD, and myself. This year we had an expanded wet lab that incorporated creating femtosecond laser LASIK flaps and learning a variety of endothelial keratoplasty insertion techniques. We plan to do it again next fall. The AAO meeting was my last hurrah as president of the Cornea Society, as my 2-year term ends December 31, 2015. It has been a busy but terrific ride. Needless to say, World Cornea Congress VII was our focus for much of the past few years. However, we were able to accomplish a great deal more, including very successful Cornea Fellows Educational Summits, co-organizing or organizing Cornea Subspe- cialty Day at the AAO annual meeting and Cornea Day at the ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress, and taking over the VISTA Dinner at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting. Our presence at international scientific meetings has increased tremendously, almost singlehandedly due to Michael Belin, MD's active involvement; this has led to a significant increase in our interna- tional membership. The Cornea Journal, under Alan Sugar, MD's superb leadership, is thriving. Additionally, the Cornea Journal published the 2nd Edition of the International Committee for Classification of Corneal Dystrophies (IC3D) and the Global Consensus of Keratoconus and Ectatic Diseases, both of which the Society supported. We continue to work with the AAO, ASCRS, American Board of Ophthalmology, FDA, and Medicare on issues of importance to ophthalmology in general and cornea specifically. One of our future focuses will be on CorneaEd, which is a comprehensive educational database providing detailed information and web-based links for fellowship training and observership programs in cornea and external disease. Conceived by the Cornea Society and the Asia Cornea Society, CorneaEd offers information on clinical educational opportunities available throughout the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region, with a view for subsequent expansion to other parts of the world. I would like to invite all of you to attend Cornea Day 2016 taking place May 6, 2016 in New Orleans preceding the ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress. This meeting is planned in conjunction with the ASCRS Cornea Clinical Committee and promises to be a terrific meeting with engaging panel discussions, interactive talks, and dynamic discussions. I could not, and did not, accomplish any of this by myself. I had tremendous help from many people throughout my 2 years as pres- ident. Although they are too numerous to mention, I would like to especially thank the ASCRS leadership, including David Karcher, Don Bell, and Don Long, and the Cornea Society Executive Committee, Donald Tan, MD, Marian Macsai, MD, Elmer Tu, MD, Michael Belin, MD, and Terry Kim, MD, and the entire Board of Directors. Dr. Macsai takes over the reins as president of the Society in January, and I am sure she will do a spectacular job representing and leading our subspecialty. I would encourage all members of the Society to become members-with-thesis so you can rise up through the ranks of this outstanding organization. Lastly, I want to thank Gail Reggio Albert for her ongoing work for and dedication to the Society for more than 10 years. Thank you again for your support over the past 2 years. Sincerely, Christopher J. Rapuano, MD President Christopher Rapuano, MD Cornea Society News – published quarterly by the Cornea Society 2