Program Committee Disclosures

The Academy has a profound duty to its members, the larger medical community and the public to ensure the integrity of all of its scientific, educational, advocacy and consumer information activities and materials. Thus each Academy Trustee, Secretary, committee Chair, committee member, taskforce chair, taskforce member, councilor, and representative to other organizations (“Academy Leader”), as well as the Academy staff and those responsible for organizing and presenting CME activities must disclose interactions with Companies and manage conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest that affect this integrity. Where such conflicts or perceived conflicts exist, they must be appropriately and fully disclosed and mitigated.

All contributors to Academy educational and leadership activities must disclose all financial relationships (defined below) to the Academy annually. The ACCME requires the Academy to disclose the following to participants prior to the activity:

• All financial relationships with Commercial Companies that contributors have had within the pre¬vious 24 months. A commercial company is any entity producing, marketing, re-selling or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.
• Meeting presenters, authors, contributors or reviewers who report they have no known financial relationships to disclose.

The Academy will request disclosure information from meeting presenters, authors, contributors or reviewers, committee members, Board of Trustees, and others involved in Academy leadership activities (“Contributors”) annually. Disclosure information will be kept on file and used during the calendar year in which it was collected for all Academy activities. Updates to the disclosure information file should be made whenever there is a change. At the time of submission of a Journal article or materials for an educational activity or nomination to a leadership position, each Contributor should specifically review his/her statement on file and notify the Academy of any changes to his/her financial disclosures. These requirements apply to relationships that are in place at the time of or were in place 24 months preceding the presentation, publication submission, or nomination to a leadership position. Any financial relationship that may constitute a conflict of interest will be mitigated prior to the delivery of the activity.

Financial Relationship Disclosure

For purposes of this disclosure, a known financial relationship is defined as any financial gain or expectancy of financial gain brought to the Contributor by:

• Direct or indirect compensation;
• Ownership of stock in the producing company;
• Stock options and/or warrants in the producing company, even if they have not been exercised or they are not currently exercisable;
• Financial support or funding to the investigator, including research support from government agencies (e.g., NIH), device manufacturers, and\or pharmaceutical companies.

Description of Financial Interests

Secretary for Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting Program Committee

The Annual Meeting Program Committee is responsible for the Academy's annual meeting Scientific Program, including Instruction Courses, Symposia, the Spotlight on Cataract, Scientific Papers/Posters and Videos. Each subcommittee has five - ten reviewers who grade the instruction courses and paper/poster abstracts as well as three subcommittee members who review the grades, then select the courses and abstracts for presentation.

Subcommittee for: Cataract

Subcommittee for: Cornea, External Disease

Subcommittee for: Glaucoma

Subcommittee for: Neuro-Ophthalmology, Electronic Health Records/Information Technology, Ethics, General Medical, Global Ophthalmology, Medical Education, Ophthalmic History, Vision Rehabilitation and Wellness

Subcommittee for: Ocular Pathology, Oncology and Oculoplastics, Orbit

Subcommittee for: Pediatric Ophthalmology, Strabismus

Subcommittee for: Refractive Surgery and Optics, Refraction, Contact Lenses

Subcommittee for: Retina, Vitreous and Uveitis, Intraocular Inflammation

Special Projects Committee

The Special Projects Committee is responsible for developing programming and formats that cross subspecialties, as well as complement those that are submitted by members or societies.

Skills Transfer Advisory Committee

The Skills Transfer Advisory Committee is responsible for selecting the Skills Transfer courses and labs.

Subspecialty Day Advisory Committee

Subspecialty Day

Cornea

Glaucoma

Oculofacial Plastic Surgery

Pediatric Ophthalmology

Refractive Surgery

Retina

Uveitis

AAOE Content Committee

The AAOE Annual Meeting Program Committee is responsible for selecting the AAOE Instruction Courses, Coding Sessions and the Practice Management Master Classes.

Academy Staff