Rick Palmon, MD, is an anterior segment surgeon performing cornea, cataract, glaucoma, and refractive surgery. He practices in Fort Myers at Southwest Florida Eye Center, a two-physician practice that merged earlier this year with US Eye, which has centers throughout the Southeast.
My first annual meeting—1992. I was a third-year resident during my first annual meeting, which was in Dallas. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of symposia, paper talks, and course offerings, and by the grandeur of the exhibit hall.
My tip for scheduling—use the Mobile Meeting Guide. The Mobile Meeting Guide allows you to plan your schedule and get reminders. You also can see what’s happening at the current moment [for full functionality, you will need to log in].
The best clinical practice lessons I learned at the annual meeting—how to transition to new forms of surgery. Skills Transfer labs and other programming were hugely helpful when I made the transition from PKP [penetrating keratoplasty] to DSEK [Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty] and DALK [deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty], and later to DMEK [Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty]. I learned the pearls for surgical success, which made the transition much easier for me and for my patients.
My most rewarding experience—volunteering at the labs. There’s nothing better than the joy of helping colleagues learn new skills, and I have been volunteering at the Skills Transfer sessions every year since I finished training in cataract and corneal transplant.
How the annual meeting has changed—it is more condensed. My first annual meeting, 30 years ago, started on Sunday and finished on Thursday. Since then, the meeting has become more focused, providing the most helpful sessions over a long weekend. This makes it more practice friendly, in that you don’t have to take a whole week off from work to get needed CME and the latest updates.
Format change that simplifies your scheduling—standardized session lengths. At my first annual meeting, I was like a kid in a candy store! I wanted to go to everything but found some of the events were going on simultaneously or overlapped. This year, the standardized session length [75 minutes] should help.
My guilty pleasure at the annual meeting—spending evenings with old friends. The annual meeting gives me a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues from all around the United States and across the world for dinner and drinks in some amazingly fun cities. Since the annual meeting revisits locations, I’ve learned about the best dining and music options to catch up with friends. This can keep you busy to the wee hours of the morning—getting up for an 8 o’clock session can be painful at times!
This content is excerpted from the Sunday/Monday edition of AAO 2022 News, the newspaper distributed at the convention center.
Read more news about Subspecialty Day and AAO 2022.