Renewed commitment

ESCRS President Béatrice Cochener-Lamard MD, PhD, co-chaired a combined symposium 
on handling cataract surgery complications at the ASCRS ASOA Annual Meeting 
in San Diego, USA, which featured tips on preventing and recovering 
posterior capsule breaks from Thomas Kohnen Renowned cataract surgery researcher, teacher and clinician Nick Mamalis MD took over as president of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery from Thomas W Samuelson MD at the 2019 ASCRS ASOA Annual Meeting in San Diego, USA. At the joint meeting with the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators (ASOA), the two organisations introduced new logos and renewed their commitment to serving the needs of surgeons. “I am honoured and excited to play a leadership role in shaping our future,” said Dr Mamalis, who is professor of ophthalmology at the John A Moran Eye Center of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, USA, where he also directs the world-renowned Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory founded by David Apple MD. With Thomas Kohnen MD, PhD, Dr Mamalis is editor of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and is co-director of the Intermountain Ocular Research Center, where he researches intraocular lenses and postoperative inflammation. New Look The new ASCRS logo and tag line, “For Surgeons. For You”, reflects the society’s renewed commitment to its core missions of education, advocacy and philanthropy that promote better vision, outcomes, and quality of life for patients. ASCRS Honorees For his pioneering work including developing the continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis, ASCRS inducted Howard V Gimbel MD, MPH, of Canada, into the ASCRS Ophthalmology Hall of Fame. Phillips Thygeson MD was inducted posthumously for work including discovering the causes of trachoma. Hal Kushner MD of Florida, USA, received the first ASCRS Distinguished Member Award. Before becoming an ophthalmologist, Dr Kushner served as a flight surgeon for the US Army in Vietnam, where he was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years after a helicopter crash. Richard Litwin MD received the ASCRS Foundation Chang Humanitarian Award, for his decades of work reducing cataract blindness in the developing world. ESCRS at ASCRS ESCRS President Béatrice Cochener-Lamard MD, PhD, co-chaired a combined symposium on handling cataract surgery complications that featured tips on preventing and recovering posterior capsule breaks from Prof Kohnen, of Frankfurt, Germany, and saving unstable lenses with capsular hooks from Guy Kleinmann MD, of Rehovot, Israel. In the elite TOPGUN competition, ESCRS was ably represented by Boris Malyugin MD, PhD, of Russia, Filomena J. Ribeiro MD, PhD, of Portugal, Sathish Srinivasan FRCSEd, FRCOpth of the UK and Pavel Stodulka MD, PhD, of the Czech Republic. Pitting eight of the best phaco instructors from Europe and Asia against eight from North and South America, the rollicking session included high-flying video and phaco pearls from contestants, and partisan put-downs from opposing team judges in a unique educational format.

Tags: ASCRS, ASCRS2019