Retina World Congress to represent more than 100 countries

The Retina World Congress will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Feb. 23 to 26, with more than 900 attendees already registered and more signing up every day, Congress President Rishi P. Singh, MD, told Healio.com/OSN.

International retina meetings are factional by nature, being held in different countries and attended mostly by constituents from those countries, Singh said, but for this congress, 35 retina societies from around the world will participate.

“Everyone does something different, but we can learn from each other on this global scale,” Singh said.

Each society has submitted delegates and presenters.

“They took part in picking out the topics of the meeting, selecting the organizational structure of the meeting [and] how it’s going to be done from a discussion or case standpoint,” Singh said.

The meeting will consist of a large debate section and 5-minute didactic lectures, followed by 2-minute discussion sections. The discussion-oriented meeting will focus on a number of topics, including treatment strategies in diabetic macular edema with anti-VEGF therapies, he said.

“We wanted the topics to be something the participants would use in their clinic immediately when they returned from the meeting — practical, informative and relevant. We wanted to have topics presented that might make the viewer change their practice pattern based on the available data. ... We have really good summarized lectures, but also time for discussion and interaction with each other,” Singh said.

Leadership of the Retina World Congress decided to host the event in Fort Lauderdale as a nod to the days when the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meetings were held there, Singh said. Many members of the Retina World Congress who attended the ARVO annual meetings were nostalgic for the city.

“People from international places like the idea of going to a place that is familiar to them, a place that they are well aware of and to participate in the meeting together. At the end of the day, they liked the idea of going to Fort Lauderdale. Of course, with an international retina meeting, it could have been anywhere. They chose to be in the old ARVO stomping grounds of Fort Lauderdale,” Singh said.

Online registration is closed, but registration will be available onsite during the meeting at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach hotel. – by Robert Linnehan

Editor’s note: Ocular Surgery News is a media partner of the Retina World Congress.

Disclosure: Singh reports he is the president of the Retina World Congress.

Reference: Retina World Congress. http://retinaworldcongress.org.