The honorary lectures are among the highlights of AAO 2023. These informative presentations by leaders in their field are easy to fit into your schedule, as they are usually between 14 and 35 minutes long. Monday’s honorary lecturers preview their presentations below.
RETINA
Arnall Patz Lecture: Automated AI-based Image Analysis for Empowering Real-World AMD (Wet and Dry) Management
Presented by Ursula M. Schmidt-Erfurth, MD
When: Monday, 8:03-8:17 a.m., during Sym55, Non-neovascular AMD—The New Frontier. (8:00-9:15 a.m.)
Where: West 2002
“With more than 200 million individuals suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) worldwide, the challenge of providing adequate care is enormous. Patient and disease management must offer the highest quality, a rapid workflow, and efficient use of socioeconomic resources.
“Extensive interdisciplinary research has led to the development of automated AI-based tools that perform accurate and objective evaluation of disease activity and therapeutic response. Regulatory approval allows their use as clinical decision support systems. In neovascular AMD (nAMD), fluid is guiding personalized intervals of anti-VEGF administration. For visual outcomes, fluid compartments and volumes are relevant and can be identified and quantified at a nanoliter level by a mouse click for real-time decision-making. Fluid/function correlation proves that intraretinal fluid has a high impact on vision. However, with subretinal fluid, only larger volumes compromise best-corrected visual acuity, and the potential for recovery is high.
“In geographic atrophy (GA), OCT based AI analysis accurately reveals loss of photoreceptor (PR) and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) integrity in real-time, with PR degeneration consistently preceding and exceeding RPE loss. GA monitoring accurately visualizes and quantifies PR and RPE loss progression. Based on the PR/RPE loss ratio, a single baseline OCT can identify individuals with lesion progression as well as differentiate between responders and nonresponders to therapy.”
—Ursula M. Schmidt-Erfurth, MD
PATHOLOGY/ONCOLOGY
Zimmerman Lecture: Liquid Biopsy & Personalized Medicine: The Keys That Will Cure Ocular Cancers
Presented by Dan S. Gombos, MD
When: Monday, 10:38-10:58 a.m., during Sym60, The Future of Ocular Oncology: Artificial Intelligence and More (9:45-11:00 a.m.)
Where: West 2002
“The field of oncology has experienced exponential advances in historically resistant malignancies, including cutaneous melanoma and lung carcinoma, with vastly improved five-year survival rates.
“While the past 30 years have witnessed significant progress in ocular oncology and pathology (especially in relation to diagnosis and prognosis), this has not translated into improved overall survival with primary ocular neoplasms such as uveal melanoma and vitreoretinal lymphoma. Other malignancies such as retinoblastoma have seen exceptionally high cure rates and improved globe salvage, but management relies upon standardized chemotherapeutic treatment regimens.
“The next decade will bring about the most significant advances in the discipline, with improved survival and reduced ocular morbidity. Personalized targeted and immune therapies combined with minimally invasive surveillance through liquid media specimens are the keys that will unlock these cures. Come and hear how the battle against ocular tumors will be won!”
—Dan S. Gombos, MD
CATARACT
Charles D. Kelman Lecture: Demystifying Technology: How Understanding Our Diagnostic “Black Boxes” Can Improve Our Approach to Cataract Surgery
Presented by Mitchell P. Weikert, MD
When: Monday, 11:28-11:53 a.m., during Sym54, Spotlight on Cataract: Complicated Phaco/IOL Cases—My Top 5 Pearls. (8:00 a.m.-noon)
Where: Esplanade Ballroom
“As cataract surgery has evolved, we have been fortunate to gain access to increasingly sophisticated diagnostic technologies. As our ability to measure the eye and calculate the appropriate intraocular lens power has improved, so have our refractive outcomes. However, despite these advancements, we still confront unanticipated results—post-op surprises—on a fairly regular basis. Depending on our backgrounds, we have different comfort levels with the various technologies and formulas that we use in our daily practice. While we can get by with a rudimentary understanding, if we dig a little deeper and expand our insight, we can avoid potential problems, improve our results, increase patient satisfaction, and ask the right questions that will help us to further evolve.
“In this year’s Kelman Lecture, I will take a look ‘under the hood’ of the various diagnostic modalities that we rely on daily for cataract surgery planning. I will discuss the fundamentals, describe the underlying assumptions, address the resulting limitations, review some of the work we’ve done to further elucidate these principles, identify areas for future investigation, and offer some practical pearls that you can take home to your practice.”
—Mitchell P. Weikert, MD
MICROBIOLOGY
Jones-Smolin Lecture: ARMOR Against Antibiotic Resistance: When Treatment Can’t Wait
Presented by Penny A. Asbell, MD, FACS
When: Monday, 12:27-12:45 p.m., during Sym62, Latest Diagnostic and Therapeutic Advancements in Ocular Infections.(11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.)
Where: West 2005
“Eye infections cannot wait—especially if they involve the cornea or intraocular tissues. It is critical to start treatment immediately, but the hurdle is how to pick the best antibiotic if a bacterial infection is likely. Surveillance data give us a head start as we wait for lab cultures and/or PCR results. The ARMOR surveillance study of ocular isolates began in 2009 and has provided yearly information on antibiotic resistance and minimum inhibitory concentrations for ocular isolates from across the United States, providing a possible first step for clinicians in choosing an antibiotic. ARMOR has shown us that antibiotic resistance is relevant not only for systemic diseases and/or hospital patients but also for eye infections. Understanding the ARMOR data can help clinicians navigate treatment of eye infections.”
—Penny A. Asbell, MD
This content is excerpted from the Sunday/Monday edition of AAO 2023 News, the newspaper distributed at the convention center.
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