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Unplugged program at Retina World Congress invites unfiltered conversation

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Unplugged is a new program added to the agenda of the Retina World Congress meeting that invites interactive participation without filtering the conversation.

“That is the unplugged part of the Unplugged title,” Pravin U. Dugel, MD, told Healio.com/OSN.

Dugel, Peter K. Kaiser, MD, and Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD, PhD, are honorary chairs of the event, which will be held March 21, preceding the main Retina World Congress program. The three will moderate a series of panels featuring industry experts and clinical leaders who will discuss their newest technologies and be subjected to direct and sometimes tough questioning, Dugel said.

“This unique format doesn't exist anywhere else,” he said. “Oftentimes at meetings, an industry person summarizes what their company does, without the opportunity for interaction or feedback. Here they have the opportunity to discuss their product in the context of all the other products that are being developed in that same arena in robust interactive sessions with industry colleagues, investors and physicians.”

Physicians, drug and technology company representatives, as well as investors can all benefit from the Unplugged program, he said.

“It is not like other meetings where industry people or investors can't talk. Everybody is on the same footing; everybody can talk, ask questions and make comments,” he said.

Furthermore, panelists represent competing companies and will have the opportunity to contrast and defend their respective products.

“Unplugged will be a format where difficult and controversial questions can be asked and where products will be scrutinized to a level that they haven't been scrutinized before,” Dugel said. “It is going to get very interesting. The main thing that we want to do is to have an unfiltered open discussion. We'll certainly learn things that we wouldn't otherwise learn in a simple podium presentation.” – by Scott Buzby

Disclosure: Dugel reports no relevant financial disclosures.