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5 EW SHOW DAILY ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress, Los Angeles 2017 by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Staff Writer Evolution of glaucoma as a surgical disease will take center stage at the Charles D. Kelman, MD, Innovator's Lecture I f anyone can speak to glaucoma as a surgical disease, it's Reay Brown, MD, Atlanta Ophthal- mology Associates, Atlanta. Entering the field 3 decades ago, Dr. Brown's innovations have laid the foundation for many of the Reay Brown, MD, to deliver Innovator's Lecture continued on page 6 microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) options currently available and more. For his contributions, Dr. Brown is being honored with the Charles D. Kelman, MD, Innovator's Lecture and Medal. "Receiving the Innovator Award is the highlight of my career," Dr. Brown said. "It is an award that I never expected, but I am grateful to be among the few glaucoma spe- cialists to receive it. The Innovator's Lecture gives me the opportunity to tell part of the story of how glauco- ma is becoming a surgical disease. "Selecting me for this award demonstrates a recognition that glaucoma is a critical component of ASCRS. In fact, I think it is fair to say that the immense support from ASCRS—both as an organization as well as through key members—has been critical to the success of MIGS," Dr. Brown continued. "This award is also vindication for the incredible efforts of so many people who have labored for so many years in devel- oping the breakthrough devices and procedures we have today." Dr. Brown graduated cum laude from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and completed medi- cal school at the University of Mich- igan, Ann Arbor. His ophthalmology residency was at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, and he completed a glaucoma fellow- ship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, before returning to Wilmer as chief resident. Before entering private practice in Atlanta in 1999, Dr. Brown served for 11 years as director of the glau- coma service at Emory Eye Center, Atlanta, where he was also the first Pamela Humphrey Firman Professor of Ophthalmology. Dr. Brown and his wife, Mary Lynch, MD, Atlanta, have been awarded 27 patents together for glaucoma and cataract surgery devic- es and instruments. Dr. Brown's first innovation, developed while he was still in residency, was an internal sclerec- tomy that was performed with a modified vitrectomy trephine called the "trabecuphine." It could create an internal filtering operation in just minutes without a conjunctival incision or a dissected scleral flap. The internal approach to filtering surgery—combined with an implant to keep the hole open and regulate flow—is the basis for the current XEN Gel Stent (Allergan, Dublin, Ireland). His next innovation was a device placed in the cornea that drained fluid directly into the tear film. This device reached the trial stage with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but eventu- ally was not pursued. However, the Reay Brown, MD

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