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2005 to be ASCRS ‘Year of Inclusion’
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WASHINGTON – “Inclusion” will be the theme of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery during the year 2005, incoming ASCRS President Roger F. Steinert, MD, proclaimed at the start of this year’s meeting.
“Uncle ASCRS wants you!” he joked here at the meeting’s opening general session.
“We need to do a better job of including all our members in various ways and degrees,” he said here during his inaugural address. To that end, he said, ASCRS will host a reception at the meeting specifically for first-time attendees and new graduates. Dr. Steinert said he hopes to facilitate an “idea generation” forum where younger and older ophthalmologists can freely discuss ideas, research and treatments.
The mission of ASCRS, he said, is to “advance the art and science of ophthalmic surgery and promote the quality of eye care.”
One new educational initiative Dr. Steinert described is e-learning, whereby abstracts from ASCRS meetings will be available online.
“We want to do more,” he said. “Let us know what you want and how ASCRS can help you.”
Dr. Steinert noted that he was “deeply honored and equally humbled” in taking on the role of ASCRS president.
Outgoing ASCRS President Priscilla P. Arnold, MD, spoke about her year in office in a separate address. She said the year culminated in an increased political awareness among members of the scope-of-practice issue now facing ophthalmologists nationwide. But the group’s accomplishments to date are not enough, she stressed.
“You need to be involved,” Dr. Arnold said. Two political issues of utmost importance to the membership remain Medicare reform and the introduction of “pay for performance” initiatives, she said.
Dr. Steinert likened the pay-for-performance issue as a “set of new clothes on the emperor.”
“It’s still payment reduction,” he said.
He also asked members to contribute heavily to EyePAC, the ophthalmic political action committee.
“Optometrists who makes less than you are contributing more than you” to lobbying efforts aimed at changing optometric scope-of-practice laws around the country, he said.
“The stakes have never been higher,” he said.
The opening session also included the induction of three new members into the Hall of Fame: Gholam A. Peyman, MD, noted for his work in vitreoretinal surgery and intraocular drug delivery; Jules François, MD, PhD, for his work in detailing the anatomy of the central retinal artery of the optic nerve; and Robert M. Sinskey, MD, for his research and development of J-loop IOLs and surgical instruments.