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36 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | MAY 6, 2023 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING DAILY NEWS between this and surgical outcomes. "Originally, we never thought about how dry eye could impact surgical outcomes including visual results in LASIK and cataract surgery," he said. "I'll talk about the evolution of dry eye management and how new surgical techniques and pharmaco- logical management have made dry eye management better, and because of this, we're getting better outcomes in our surgical results." He reiterated that the main focus of his lecture will be his progression from a traditional corneal-trained surgeon. "I was able to innovate in other areas because ASCRS gave me the tools to allow me to bring these different subspecialties together," he said. Dr. Donnenfeld is the founding partner of Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island and Connecticut, a trust- ee of Dartmouth Medical School, and a clinical professor of ophthalmology at New York University. He served as the chief medical editor of ASCRS' EyeWorld magazine and president of the Society. The Binkhorst Lecture and Medal were established in 1975 in honor of IOL pioneer Cornelius Binkhorst, MD. Each year, ASCRS awards the medal to an individual who has followed in Dr. Binkhorst's footsteps with outstanding contributions to the understanding and practice of anteri- or segment surgery. Reference 1. Donnenfeld ED, et al. Laser in situ keratomil- eusis for correction of myopia and astigma- tism after penetrating keratoplasty. Ophthal- mology. 1999;106:1966–1974. including ways that it could be applied for corneal diseases. "We started off by doing phototherapeutic keratectomy to remove scars with the laser," he said. "Eventually, we used a keratome, and now we're using the femtosecond laser to remove scars to improve the quality of vision in patients with superficial dystrophies." Dr. Donnenfeld said another aspect that he enjoyed in refractive surgery was that it allowed him to improve visual results in patients who had penetrating keratoplasty. "I was privileged to be the first author of one of the first papers to inves- tigate performing LASIK to correct myopia and astigmatism following penetrating keratoplasty, 1 " he said. In his lecture, Dr. Donnenfeld also plans to discuss limbal relaxing incisions (LRIs) and how they have gained popularity and improved quality of vision in patients having cataract surgery. He'll talk about the nomogram he developed to make LRIs simpler. "I want to emphasize that innovation is not always making things more complex; sometimes innovation means making things simpler," he said. "That's what the nomogram I developed did—made it simpler—then we made it more accessible by working with industry to put it on a website, LRIcalculator. com, [where] doctors from around the world could develop a plan for LRIs that not only included the length of the incisions but also the axis of the astigmatism using vector analysis to determine where the inci- sion should be placed." Dry eye and its effect on the ocu- lar surface will also be a focus of Dr. Donnenfeld's lecture. He said he's ex- tremely proud of his work managing dry eye and learning the association T oday on the Main Stage, Eric Donnenfeld, MD, will give the Binkhorst Lecture, titled "The Road to Innovation: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been." One point Dr. Donnenfeld wants to emphasize in his lecture is that the road to innovation is classically defined as standing on the shoulders of giants, but it's important to realize that there are people who aren't necessarily giants who play a significant role in innovation. "In my case, my affiliation with ASCRS has been one of the major factors that has led me down this road to innova- tion," he said. Dr. Donnenfeld began his career as a corneal specialist, and through his work with ASCRS, he became a refractive surgeon, then a cata- ract surgeon. He's now even doing glaucoma surgery as well with MIGS. "ASCRS has provided me with the tools that have allowed me to reinvent myself every few years as new technology becomes available," he said. "It also provided me with the tools I needed to innovate in other areas so that while I always go back to my humble origins as a corneal specialist, I became interest- ed in refractive surgery, and it was augmented by my background in cornea." He noted that his early innova- tions in the field were in the areas where refractive surgery and corneal surgery intersected. Dr. Donnenfeld was an investigator for the excimer laser, and he started looking at how the excimer laser could be used for more than just refractive purposes, Binkhorst Lecture to highlight road to innovation

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