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1974–1980s SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD | 23 came up with the idea of establishing these committees. is, he continued, changed the structure of the Soci- ety, administratively, clinically, and educationally. e committees kept membership up to date with regard to relevant issues. "To me, the Clinical Committees are the heart and soul of ASCRS," Mr. Karcher said. "All of a sudden our whole base of clinical education completely changed. e whole foundation of clinical information and data completely changed. It was an extremely valuable pro- cess." With opportunities to serve on Clinical Committees, to become reviewers and editors of JCRS, and to submit papers to the journal and a variety of educational ideas to the meetings, ASCRS was established as a meritoc- racy. Steve Speares, ASCRS Executive Director from 2018 to present, said being meritocratic has "been really important in the organization's DNA" and made it suc- cessful. "It wasn't a popularity contest. It was who had actu- ally spent time working on different subcommittees, working to lobby in Washington, D.C., and working in a volunteer capacity preparing great content for An- nual Meetings and even some of the smaller meetings. I think that's another thing that has continued to set the organization apart—the commitment that the membership and the leadership have to making it better for each other," he said. As the Society grew, so did innovation in the field of anterior segment surgery. Dr. Obstbaum said that in the early years of IOLs, not every patient was implanted with an intraocular lens, as they are now. In his practice, only patients who the surgeon thought could truly ben- efit from the IOL were thought to be good candidates, and perfect cataract surgery was paramount to ensure success of lens implantation. Dr. Hoffer said at the time there were physicians who implanted IOLs in the majority of their patients. anks to the work of early IOL inventors and users, the IOLs themselves became refined and new tech- niques for implantation were created, making more and more patients candidates for the implants. Calculations were developed for refractive results. "As intraocular lenses were refined, our surgical skills and changes in our surgical techniques became more so- phisticated. We recognized that we could help patients with conditions we previously avoided," Dr. Obstbaum said. What's more, Dr. Obstbaum said over time there were innovations in surgically managing concomitant condi- tions at the same time as cataract surgery. In the late 1990s, ASCRS added Clinical Committees in several areas. Mr. Karcher said Roger Steinert, MD, Dr. Jaffe (le) and Dr. Hoffer (right) were two early leaders in ASCRS. Source: ASCRS ASCRS celebrates pioneers in ophthalmology. Source: ASCRS

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