EyeWorld India September 2020 Issue

NEWS & OPINION 58 EWAP SEPTEMBER 2020 and the Barrett Rx Formula. This is arguably the most popularly used lens implant calculator in the world today. While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced countless events to be cancelled or postponed, APACRS presses on with its mission to disseminate and educate remotely, and is exploring other avenues to keep in touch with fellow ophthalmologists. “COVID-19 has caused everybody to reevaluate how they do business, travel, and how they have conferences,” Dr. Chan said. “Early in the year, we were optimistic that it would pass, but when it became clear that we couldn’t do face-to-face meetings we explored other avenues to keep in touch with our members all over the region. This pushed us to put online the many films that have won has developed an APACRS Young Eye Surgeons Program that is specially tailored for young and junior doctors, as well as offers grants to encourage young ophthalmologists to attend conferences to present research papers. Singapore as ideal regional hub Singapore is well suited to being APACRS’s regional hub, as its excellent geographical location and transportation links allow easy access to the different local ophthalmologist societies in the region. The society’s permanent secretariat is located at the Singapore National Eye Centre, the national eye center within Singapore’s public sector healthcare network, and is responsible for the organization of the society’s day-to-day activities. The Singapore Eye the film festival awards. So far, there are 80 to 90 films available for viewing online without additional fees or restrictions, a move that has met with a lot of interest. “Thankfully we have already digitized EyeWorld Asia-Pacific ,” Dr. Chan said. “With no more face-to-face meetings, the APACRS’s annual meetings will be a challenge. We will have to rack our brains to figure out how to jump the gap of social distancing to exchange professional ideas and information, as well as to view and experience different medical equipment and products.” Another challenge faced by the society is how to engage younger doctors, who generally prefer virtual meetings and are less keen to attend conferences due to the time and costs involved. As a result, the society Foundation has also provided APACRS with grants for meetings and projects, as well as helped to fund the IT setup to ensure constant and efficient online availability of the Barrett IOL calculator. The island state’s infrastructure and location has made it easy to coordinate the annual meetings. There is easy access to the different organizations and partners that participate in and sponsor the meetings as they are mostly based in Singapore. “Singapore is also an attractive destination to host the annual meetings,” Dr. Chan said. “Whenever the meetings are held in Singapore, there is usually a good response from not only the delegates, but also those in paramedical field and industry who want to exhibit their wares.” True-KFormula ToricCalculator Universal IIFormula RXFormula True-KToric BARRETT IOL CALCULATOR available at www.APACRS.org The latest update to the Barrett True K Formula, version 2.5, addresses yet another challenge to IOL power calculations— keratoconus. Selecting the option in the presence of keratoconus significantly improves the prediction of refractive outcomes and avoids unexpected hyperopia. Log on to www.apacrs.org and try it today! NEWUPDATE! Barrett calculator .indd 6 08/06/2020 3:27PM