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6 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | APRIL 6, 2024 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING DAILY NEWS L eon Herndon Jr., MD, delivered the Stephen A. Obstbaum, MD, Honored Lecture on "30 Years of Glaucoma Practice: Why I am Still Excited to go to Work Every Day!" during Glaucoma Day. Dr. Herndon, who serves on the faculty at Duke University, has published more than 100 peer-re- viewed papers, 17 chapters, and one textbook. He has given 159 national lectures, 23 international lectures, 16 named lectures, and has 17 visiting professorships. Dr. Herndon has had 89 glaucoma fellows and helped train hundreds of residents. With ASCRS, he served as chair of the Glaucoma Clinical Committee from 2020–2023 and has been on the committee since 2014. He also served on the 2018 CyPass Recom- mendations Task Force. Dr. Herndon has served more than 144,000 patients and per- formed more than 14,000 surgeries. "I'm honored to add my name to the list of distinguished Obstbaum lecturers," he said. In his lecture, Dr. Herndon focused on the evolution of glaucoma diagnostics, medications, surgical options, and the up-and- coming innovations. In the 1980s, Dr. Herndon said he thinks the top glaucoma innova- tion was in the field of pharmacology. He also said that there was a time when intraocular lens implantation was not standard of care for glau- coma patients receiving cataract surgery; Dr. Obstbaum helped guide it to become standard of care. In the 1990s, Dr. Herndon said he thinks wound modulation and OCT were the top glaucoma advanc- es. He said during this time you had to line up paper printouts of visual fields to monitor for progression. Now visual field monitoring is digital and there are head-mounted virtual reality perimeters making taking visual fields easier for the patient and the practice. While OCT for glaucoma was published in the 1990s, it didn't become widely clinically available until the early 2000s, and it has since become an invaluable tool for patient care, Dr. Herndon said. When he was a fellow, Dr. Herndon said optic nerves were drawn. Dr. Herndon also took the audi- ence through the different means of IOP measure measurements. He said newer advances are allowing patients to monitor IOP more frequently at home, and future implant sensors could allow for the "holy grail" of continuous monitoring. These newer IOP monitoring technologies are adding to our understanding of some glaucoma procedures. Other technological advances Dr. Herndon highlighted were the Ocular Pressure Adjusting Pump (Balance Ophthalmics), contactless SLT with the Eagle device (Belkin Vision), and upcoming possibilities with artificial intelligence and genetic testing. He also described the evolution of glau- coma medical therapy and MIGS. Dr. Herndon mentioned a paper that projects a concerning shortage of ophthalmologists amid high pa- tient demand. "I'm making an appeal to all young medical students and residents in the audience to consider glaucoma as a profession. As you see, we've had great advances that will lead to a fulfilling career before you," he said. Finally, Dr. Herndon said that the last 30 years have seen "unprec- edented growth" in glaucoma. "I feel very fortunate to have been a part of it." Editors' note: Dr. Herndon has finan- cial interests with various ophthalmic companies. Obstbaum Lecture reviews 30 years of glaucoma innovation "I'm making an appeal to all young medical students and residents in the audience to consider glaucoma as a profession. As you see, we've had great advances that will lead to a fulfilling career before you." —Leon Herndon Jr., MD

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