EyeWorld India September 2020 Issue

NEWS & OPINION EWAP SEPTEMBER 2020 57 become a conduit for the many talented cataract and refractive surgeons in the Asia-Pacific to present on the world’s stage. Ours may be the youngest of the international cataract and refractive societies, but because of the relationships we have built, our members speak and represent the society at all the major global conferences.” A Meeting of Minds A key highlight in APACRS’s calendar is the annual meeting held for its members in the Asia-Pacific region. The society’s annual meeting features a carefully curated scientific program that is tailored to doctors in the Asia-Pacific and includes important practice information provided by a top- rate faculty from around the world. The scientific program includes MasterClasses that cover the hottest topics in ophthalmic surgery and features the Combined Symposium of Cataract and Refractive Societies (CSCRS). When members gather, they get to interact and exchange scientific information, which generates new ideas and breakthroughs that lead to more effective and efficient patient care. There have been 32 annual meetings so far, with 1,500 to 3,000 attendees at each of these meetings. A highlight of the annual meetings is the APACRS Film Festival, which is like the Academy Awards of ophthalmology that showcases 8-minute films that are both entertaining and educational, displaying new innovations and breakthroughs in ophthalmic surgery. “These films range from the very technical—such as how to do cataract surgery or how to implant a lens—to general interest films that may provide a broader sense of what’s new and exciting in ophthalmology, highlighting the latest techniques, technologies, and ideas,” said Dr. Chan Wing Kwong, Secretary of APACRS. “These educational movies from the Asia-Pacific have done well and have won many prizes at global conferences.” APACRS’s proactive role in encouraging surgeons to make these films has resulted in Asia-Pacific films winning over half of the prizes at the recent American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) film festival. “It is a lot of work to make a film,” explained Dr. Yeoh. “To make an 8-minute movie, you may need to collect years of videos and clips, edit everything, provide storyboards and narration. More and more people are realizing that film media is a great way to teach.” Continually educating Over the years, the APACRS has developed various instruments to fulfill its mission to educate. Among them is EyeWorld Asia-Pacific , a quarterly news magazine that keeps its readers abreast of the latest developments while keeping its perspective on what is relevant to the Asia-Pacific region. Besides being available in English, the magazine is also translated into Chinese and Korean, and distributed in both digital and hard copy to some 30,000 ophthalmologists in over 22 countries in the region. The digital version of EyeWorld Asia-Pacific is available on the society’s website and provides its members with important news. It also provides a convenient biometry calculator that employs what are widely considered to be among the most accurate intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation formulae developed by Prof. Graham Barrett: the Barrett Universal II formula, the Barrett Toric Calculator, the Barrett True-K Formula, the Barrett True-K Toric Calculator,