Eyeworld Daily News

ASCRS NEWS by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Senior Staff Writer R on Kurtz, MD, Aliso Viejo, Cali- fornia, will deliver the 2019 Charles D. Kelman Innovator's Lecture today during the Innovators General Session. "It is particularly meaningful for me to receive an award from ASCRS, which I have come to ad- mire as one of the most important organizations in ophthalmolo- gy," Dr. Kurtz said. "ASCRS was founded by ophthalmic innovators who wanted to create a forum to advance their field. I hope to focus my talk on some of the factors in ophthalmology that have made this effort so successful." Dr. Kurtz chose to go into ophthalmology because it "checked all the boxes for me." It provided the opportunity to deliver surgical and medical care, and he said he was interested in its connection to neuroscience. For these same reasons, he specialized in retina. "I now also appreciate many other aspects of the field, includ- ing its close relationship with optics, the importance of vision in the lives of our patients, and the tremendous professionals who have devoted their careers to its advancement." Dr. Kurtz is well-known in the field for his work with lasers, but he said his interest didn't take off until he saw an accidental laser injury while on call. A graduate student aligning an open laser sys- tem failed to wear protective eye wear, leading to what Dr. Kurtz described as "very focal damage in the fovea but with surprisingly excellent retained visual acuity." This injury, Dr. Kurtz said, was caused by one of the first femto- second lasers. After that, Dr. Kurtz began working with the group led by Gerard Mourou, PhD, investi- gating medical applications for the technology. This led to his collaboration with Tibor Juhasz, PhD, and creation of IntraLase and femtosecond corneal surgery. Ron Kurtz, MD, to deliver Kelman Innovator's Lecture I n addition to the 2019 Charles D. Kelman Innovator's Lecture at today's Innovators General Session, attendees will hear other stimulating talks from leaders in the field. Patrick Riedel, MD, will present "A New Place to Shunt Aqueous!" followed by Yichieh Shiuey, MD, and "A Novel Non-Penetrating Keratoprosthesis as a Solution for Global Corneal Blindness." Vernon Wong, MD, will speak about "Innovative Drug Delivery," and Scott MacRae, MD, will present "Laser Induced Refractive Index Correction in Humans." Continuing the string of innovation-focused talks, Eric Donnenfeld, MD, will present "A New Modular, Curvature-Changing, Fluid-Optic, Accommodating Intraocular Lens." The Innovators Session will be held today from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in room 20ABC. New ideas to ponder at today's Innovators Session Later, Dr. Kurtz, Dr. Juhasz, and Eric Weinberg cofounded LenSx Lasers (later bought by Alcon) and developed femtosecond technolo- gy for cataract surgery. Now, Dr. Kurtz is the presi- dent and CEO of RxSight, which developed the Light Adjustable Lens. Dr. Kurtz said he followed the development of this innova- tion, but he became convinced that postop adjustability would be required to attain the next levels of performance and joined that ef- fort in 2015. "While RxSight does not use lasers, many of the same optical principals are applicable," he said. Editors' note: Dr. Kurtz has financial interests with RxSight. 6 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | MAY 6, 2019 Congratulations Run for Sight participants The seventh annual ASCRS Foundation Run for Sight brought out more than 340 finishers for the 1K walk and 5K run early Sunday morning, raising more than $13,900 for the foundation. After a rousing warm-up, the runners and walkers were off on the flat course that hugged the San Diego Bay. The winners of the 5K were Austin Fox with a time of 17:46.34 and Kathryn Hatch with a time of 21:20.11. The ASCRS Foundation would like to thank Johnson & Johnson Vision for its support of this event. See pages 28 and 30 for more photos from the run.

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