EyeWorld Asia-Pacific June 2013 Issue

The rarest, most valuable pearls are formed spontaneously, in response to stimuli presented by the natural environment. Each of these pearls is thus the product of rarefied circumstances—and so each becomes itself rarefied, a unique testament to the geographic reality of its origin. As a metaphor, the pearl tends to take on a more universal aspect. In the field of anterior segment ophthalmology, a clinical or surgical pearl is any nugget of information that specialists can “take home” and apply to their own respective clinics or surgical theaters wherever their practice may be. The “geo-specificity”, the rarity of the circumstances that create the literal, physical pearl and contributes to its value becomes lost in the linguistic repurposing of the term. But these metaphorical pearls have traditionally come from the West. As a result, their value may not necessarily be the same in the Asia-Pacific, where the region’s own rarefied circumstances may give rise to an altogether different, potentially more relevant, set of pearls. This year, the Asia-Pacific Association of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons (APACRS) is bringing together world leaders and innovators in the fields of cataract, refractive surgery, corneal surgery and external eye diseases, and glaucoma expressly to find these “Pearls from the Orient”, thus putting a global focus on the anterior segment. The society has made its mark as the regional counterpart of major international ophthalmological societies such as the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), and the Latin American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ALACCSA/LASCRS). OPHTHALMOLOGY IN THE ORIENT The APACRS evolved from the Asia-Pacific Intraocular Implant Association (APIIA). The society was founded in 1987 by Prof Arthur Lim to reflect the dynamic developments in cataract and refractive surgery in the Asia-Pacific region. APACRS has since witness rapid growth under the leadership of the current president Prof Graham Barrett at the turn of the millennium. The society’s primary function is to disseminate and facilitate advances in the various fields of anterior segment ophthalmic surgery in the Asia- Pacific region. Over the years, theAPACRS has developed various means to fulfill this mission. Among them is EyeWorld Asia-Pacific, a quarterly news magazine that keeps its readers at the forefront of international anterior segment ophthalmic surgery news. The magazine keeps its readers abreast of the latest developments while keeping its perspective on what is relevant to the Asia-Pacific region. The magazine is currently read by over 27,000 ophthalmologists in over 22 countries in the region.