Eyeworld Supplements

FOCUSING ON THE THREE PILLARS OF THE SOCIETY 44 | SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD Expanding cornea education A new clinical committee In 2001, ASCRS added the Cornea Clinical Commit- tee, and Dr. Holland was the first chair of the committee, serving until 2008. e initiation of the Cornea Clinical Committee paralleled what was happening in cornea, he said. For decades, the only real option in corneal transplant was penetrating keratoplasty. But it became apparent in the early 2000s that this was moving to lamellar-based sur- gery, he said. Several new techniques emerged, including DSEK, DSAEK, DMEK, DALK, and also ocular sur- face stem cell transplants. Corneal surgery exploded with lamellar-based surgery, Dr. Holland said, and there was a major breakthrough in outcomes. With these new techniques came much controversy and debate on which procedure was best, how tissue should be prepared, etc. e ASCRS Annual Meeting had a lot to do with the education of corneal surgeons, Dr. Holland said, commenting on the challenge of learn- ing entirely new operations that came with their own set of complications. When there was discussion about using thinner tissue in endothelial keratoplasty, Dr. Holland said that the Francis Price Jr., MD, speaks at Cornea Day. Source: ASCRS Edward Holland, MD, Francis Mah, MD, and Mark Mannis, MD, participate on a panel during Cornea Day. Source: ASCRS Meetings by the numbers 25th Anniversary Meeting: 1999 • 5 symposia (plus an Opening General Session and Innovators Session) • 700+ papers • 151 courses • 128 posters • 200+ exhibitors very first paper describing that the thickness of tissue mattered in vision was presented at the 2009 ASCRS Annual Meeting. Further exploration on the transition from DSAEK to DMEK were presented and taught at the ASCRS Annual Meeting. New techniques for cornea transplantation continue to be discussed and debated at the Annual Meeting and in the Society's pub- lications. Cornea Day was added to the ASCRS Annual Meet- ing as part of Subspecialty Day in the early 2000s. In addition to cornea, ASCRS also provides important education across other subspecialties. Glaucoma Day became part of the Annual Meeting programming in 2006, and Refractive Day was added in 2017. Program committees for each of the Subspecialty Day programs work each year to bring relevant and timely topics to at- tendees.

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