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CREATING A TRULY COMPREHENSIVE SUBSPECIALTY SOCIETY 50 | SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD A SCRS has become more than just a society focused on cataract and refractive surgery, expanding its areas of focus to the whole of the anterior segment, encompass- ing a variety of ophthalmologists and their unique, diversified interests. is has included a heavy focus within cornea and glaucoma, as well as retina for the anterior segment surgeon and other sub-areas. e number one topic in terms of content at the Annual Meeting—the largest and most important ed- ucational initiative of ASCRS—is cataract, Dr. Holland said, but the number two is cornea. "at's what our members want," he said. Looking at the paper, poster, and other content submissions over recent years, cornea has become a huge focus. Dr. Koch said this evolution to become a more com- prehensive anterior segment surgery society didn't come easy, especially in JCRS. "Many people said, 'No, we have to stay purely a cat- aract journal.' My argument was that our members are so oen doing multiple procedures," Dr. Koch said. "We don't want to give up these great papers to oth- er journals. We want them here in JCRS to share with our Society members. I think it's been a powerful and important advance to be broader minded. We are an anterior segment society that includes cataract, cornea, refractive, and glaucoma." An inside view of the Annual Meeting Program Chair perspective e ASCRS Annual Meeting is the biggest focus of the Society each year, and ideas for the program content are put together by a committee. In 2012, Dr. Holland be- came the Annual Meeting Program Chair, taking over for Roger Steinert, MD. Manus Kraff, MD, also served as chair, and Dr. Hoffer served as chair of the scientif- ic program in the early years. omas Samuelson, MD, ASCRS President 2018–2019, became the Annual Meeting Program Chair for the 2024 ASCRS Annual Meeting. "It's my favorite thing I've done in ophthalmolog y," Dr. Holland said. "I simply was a manager but tried to encourage and shape the meeting to evolve as our at- tendees were evolving." As needs of the attendees shied, and ophthalmolo- gists wanted to learn in different ways, ASCRS had to adapt its offerings to make the educational opportuni- ties meaningful for all members, while remaining both fun and relevant. It was important to always have the goal of the highest quality education, Dr. Holland said. Efforts to put together the Annual Meeting are a com- bination of work from the staff, Clinical Committee members, and the Program Committee. Dr. Holland said he's proud of the meetings that were developed during his years as program chair. "If you're an anterior segment surgeon, there's no meeting you can go to get the incredible content we have," he said. e ASCRS Annual Meeting has long included content across cataract, refractive, cornea, and glaucoma, presented in symposia, instructional courses, skills transfer labs, paper and poster sessions, and more. Dr. Holland also stressed the importance of the general sessions/ Main Stage sessions, which bring in keynote lecturers, distinguished speakers, and awards. ere are a variety of ways to learn, all centered on the best innovative anterior seg- ment techniques that can be taught. Dr. Holland served as Program Chair of the Annual Meeting for 12 years. Source: ASCRS Dr. Samuelson became the Annual Meeting Program Chair for the 2024 ASCRS Annual Meeting. Source: ASCRS

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