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For several years both ASCRS and AAO have been preceded by the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit, the brainchild of Emmett Cunningham. What was once a cozy gathering of the really cool kids, the eye docs who started or led new companies and the Yeti who funded them, OIS is now the premier new tech meeting in eye care. Even a country eye doc who spends his non-surgery days treating dry eye can get a seat and listen in.
If he pays his registration fee, that is. Yikes!
In its earliest iteration, OIS was the place for ideas to meet money. Investors of all shapes and sizes were brought together with dreamers looking to bring their stuff to the market. Got a cool new gadget or drug? Step right up and meet Bill Link, Dick Lindstrom or Gary Novack. Not gonna lie, I was pretty psyched to have a front row seat in the Shark Tank when the bidding began.
It seems I missed that era, though. OIS ca. 2017 was mostly about already funded companies talking about products that people are waiting to use. That, and a bunch of back-slapping for companies that shared their infancy with OIS’ adolescence and were back to celebrate their success (eg, Glaukos). What was pretty cool was the absence of CME restrictions: Product developers with not yet approved widgets of all sorts were free to talk up their “aim for Mars” possibilities (hello, Gary Wortz and Gemini Refractive Capsule). That was pretty exciting.
Lest I seem too blasé about my first experience, for a guy like me who represents the common dude or dudette at a slit lamp, there were two very big deal takeaways from the conference. First, when asked in what area the most significant developments had occurred in the prior year, the audience answered overwhelmingly “dry eye” (yep, we’re looking at you Shire and Xiidra). Ditto when asked about the developments that had the most beneficial effect on patients. The biggest forward-going buzz was also for a dry eye product. Take a bow, TrueTear and Allergan.
Most exciting for me personally was the clear need for each of these companies, and the people who fund them at every stage, to engage early on with doctors who will use their products in the everyday course of caring for patients. The road to success at the level of patient care is more easily traveled if your navigator, the eye doctor who sees patients, rides shotgun. The earlier the better. The greatest successes showcased at OIS had done just that.
Call me. I’m available.
Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Shire and Eyemaginations; is on the speakers board for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan and Shire; and has a financial interest in TearScience.