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3 EW SHOW DAILY ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress, San Diego 2015 plain spoken and took the common voice and applied it to big problems, but made them simple. He believes the 21st Century Cures Initiative being developed on a bipartisan basis by the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be one of the biggest accom- plishments to come out of this Congress. The initiative is focused on fostering innovation and ex- pediting approvals for drugs and devices. Rep. McCarthy believes it will have a significant impact on the future of healthcare. EW Achieving the repeal and re- placement of SGR also came down to timing and scheduling, and Rep. McCarthy said it materialized at the right time. This approach can be applied to other problems going forward, he said. One challenge Rep. McCarthy said he has in Washington is that he is a conservative, but he is not one who believes there should be no government. It should be effective, efficient, and accountable, he said. Rep. McCarthy finished by sharing that he has portraits of both Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan in his office. He believes that there are 2 types of leaders who become president: thermometers and thermostats. A thermome- ter will take the temperature and gauge positions based on that, but a thermostat can take the temperature and also change it. "Thermostats are leaders who transform," he said. He shared some advice that he believed Lincoln and Reagan would give today. Lincoln would tell us all to believe in the exceptionalism of this country, Rep. McCarthy said. Additionally, he thinks that Lincoln would tell us not to blame others for our problems. Accept where you are and find a solution, Rep. McCarthy said. Rep. McCarthy advised elected officials and others to not put off tough decisions for future gener- ations. He added that Reagan was the importance of the inclusion of real Medicare entitlement reforms, such as means testing. Rep. McCarthy said he is tired of all the "cliffs" that the government has created. Every time you have a cliff, it builds up and you can't think of bigger policy, he said. "We have to think differently," he said. Instead of just thinking in a 10-year time- frame, we have to look at the bigger picture. When you think of the way you get entitlement reform, you may get some savings in the first decade, but in the second, third, and fourth decade, the savings are exponential. "When you start thinking that way, you can achieve bigger items." ASCRS•ASOA continued from page 1 Leading the way in Interoffice Communications CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION A MISTAKE WAS MADE IN OUR AD. PLEASE COME VISIT US AT ASCRS BOOTH 2212 Dr. Lewis stressed the importance of maintaining a positive relationship with the Food and Drug Administra- tion, of humanitarian service, and of embracing change occurring in healthcare. All of us are remarkably fortu- nate to practice a unique specialty, Dr. Lewis said. "Giving back the gift of sight never gets old." The satisfaction of what we do is never surpassed, he said. After Dr. Lewis officially trans- ferred the presidency, Dr. Cionni acknowledged the efforts that Dr. Lewis has made over the past year, and shared his plan to continue steering the society in the same direction as Dr. Lewis and other leaders before him. Dr. Cionni shared that when he was finishing residency, he was won- dering if he was ready to practice ophthalmology. He was considering a non-surgical specialty because he didn't think he had the surgical skills necessary to take care of his patients. However, he got involved with ASCRS after a recommendation from Robert Osher, MD. "It was with the influence of ASCRS that I began moving forward from border- line surgical competence to where I am today," he said. "I learned the clinical and surgical expertise that could not have evolved without my involvement in this society." Dr. Cionni said he will continue to advance the society in 6 ways: by understanding the members; collab- orating with other like organizations and societies; bolstering charitable efforts through the ASCRS Founda- tion; aligning with ASOA; through entrepreneurship and innovation; and by supporting advocacy and increasing involvement. This year's honored guests at the meeting, Philippe Sourdille, MD, and Marcelo Ventura, MD, PhD, were also honored at this time. William De La Pena, MD, Los Angeles, spoke about ALACCSA-R/ LASCRS, his involvement, and the partnership with ASCRS at this year's meeting. An update on the ASCRS Foundation was given by Richard Lindstrom, MD, Minneapolis. This was a bittersweet occasion for Dr. Lindstrom, who chaired the ASCRS Foundation for the past 6 years. However, he feels comfortable leaving the foundation to be run by Stephen Lane, MD, David Chang, MD, and James Mazzo because of their dynamic vision for the future. Before showing a video describ- ing some of the efforts of the foun- dation, Dr. Lindstrom encouraged continued participation with the ASCRS Foundation. "I hope you'll join us in making the next decade even more exciting," he said. Mov- ing forward, the foundation will be divided into subsets: international Annual meeting continued from page 1 relationships and domestic contribu- tions. Dr. Lane will head the domes- tic subset, while Dr. Chang will head the international subset. Finally, the 2015 inductees to the ASCRS Ophthalmology Hall of Fame were recognized. This year's inductees are Frederick Blodi, MD, and Gunter von Noorden, MD. EW Dr. Lindstrom encourages continued participation with the ASCRS Foundation.

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