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EW MEETING REPORTER 62 Reporting from the 2018 OIS@ASCRS, April 12, 2018, Washington, D.C. nia), Jim Mazzo, Carl Zeiss Meditec (Jena, Germany), and Cal Roberts, MD, Bausch + Lomb (Bridgewater, New Jersey), all sharing personal and professional stories of working with Mr. Karcher over the past 37 years. Dr. Link described Mr. Karcher's determination to start conducting the OIS meeting at ASCRS; Mr. Frinzi highlighted his leadership of ASCRS through ups and downs; Dr. Roberts described his great love for golf and the conversations they had on the course; and Mr. Mazzo discussed working with Mr. Karcher on the ASCRS Governing Board, as well as his friendship with the late Roger Steinert, MD. All also highlighted the contributions of Mr. Karcher's wife, Anne. Mr. Karcher thanked everyone for the honor and added that "if it wasn't for the corporate support that we got early on and we continue to get, I wouldn't be sitting here." He described it as "37 years of a dream." He also added in a thanks to his wife who, 37 years ago, manually in- putted 1,200 attendee and exhibitor badges on a typewriter. Spotlights on dry eye and MIGS A late morning session focused on dry eye, with company presenta- tions and panel discussion. Edward Holland, MD, Cincinnati, presented background information on dry eye. He noted that contact lens use, modern technology, and ocular surgery may all be factors that con- tribute to dryness. Dry eye is one of the most common causes of dissat- isfaction in surgical patients, and patients often blame their symptoms on the surgeon. Dr. Holland said that there are about 324 million people in the U.S. population with dry eye, with about 19,000 ophthalmologists, which comes out to 17,000 patients per ophthalmologist. By 2025, he said "As we think about innovation in ophthalmology, there is still im- mense unmet need," Dr. Link said, adding later that "innovation in the ophthalmology sector is sustaining and not losing momentum." A morning ophthalmology innovation showcase included presentations from representatives of AcuFocus (Irvine, California), PowerVision (Belmont, California), Cassini (The Hague, the Nether- lands), Allotex (Zurich, Switzerland, and Boston), Keranova (Saint Eti- enne, France), Perfect Lens (Irvine, California), iVeena Delivery Systems (Salt Lake City), LacriScience (Wash- ington, D.C.), BlephEx (Franklin, Tennessee), Refocus Group (Dal- las), CorneaGen (Seattle), Kedalion Therapeutics (Menlo Park, Califor- nia), and Panoptes Pharma (Vienna, Austria). 2018 Lifetime OIS Achievement Award OIS held a special recognition for David Karcher, outgoing executive director of ASCRS. Dr. Link spoke along with Tom Frinzi, Johnson & Johnson Vision (Santa Ana, Califor- T he latest in ophthalmic innovation was highlighted at the 2018 OIS@ASCRS meeting. In its 18th meeting since starting in 2009—first partner- ing with ASCRS in 2012—OIS brings together players from all parts of the innovation cycle: inventors and entrepreneurs, clinicians, financial partners, and industry leaders. William Link, PhD, Versant Ventures (San Francisco)—co-chair of the OIS program along with Em- mett Cunningham Jr., MD, PhD, Clarus Ventures (Boston and San Francisco) and Gilbert Kliman, MD, InterWest Partners (Menlo Park, Cal- ifornia)—opened the meeting with a brief discussion on the innova- tion cycle and the current status of the financial markets as it pertains to healthcare and the ophthalmic space. He offered several pieces of advice for success in innovation, including putting emphasis on the character of the team, taking initiative, having good manners and integrity, building a trusting rela- tionship, hiring great people, and being a good communicator who often listens more than speaks. May 2018 Reporting from the 2018 OIS@ASCRS Mr. Karcher, second from right, is presented with the Lifetime OIS Achievement Award by Mr. Frinzi, Dr. Roberts, Dr. Link, and Mr. Mazzo. Source: ASCRS continued on page 64 Sponsored by

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