Highlights from the 2019 AAO Annual Meeting

October 15, 2019

Nearly 40 Harvard Ophthalmology faculty and trainees from our affiliates—including Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Mass. Eye and Ear, and VA Boston Healthcare System—participated in the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting October 11-15 in San Francisco.

A number of faculty participated in Subspecialty Day events as presenters, panelists, moderators, and course instructors. Notably, Joan W. Miller, MD, Chair of Harvard Ophthalmology, and Dean Eliott, MD, the Stelios Evangelos Gragoudas Professor of Ophthalmology, took part the Retina Pro/Con debates, and successfully defended their respective debate topics.

Jennifer K. Sun, MD, MPH, Chief of the Center for Clinical Eye Research and Trials at Joslin Diabetes Center, shared data from the DRCR.net Protocol V clinical trial and was interviewed by Ophthalmology Times. The multicenter trial evaluated whether anti-VEGF injections are the best strategy in patients with centrally involved diabetic macular edema and good vision.

Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD, Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear alumna (class of '89) and the Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, presented this year's Arnall Patz Lecture. Her talk focused on the safe and effective treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.

Congratulations to our faculty and alumni who were recognized for their outstanding contributions to vision research, education, and service.

2019 Life Achievement Honor Awards

Senior Achievement Awards

  • R. V. Paul Chan, MD, MSc, alumnus
  • Pedram Hamrah, MD, alumnus
  • Victor L. Perez Quinones, MD, alumnus
  • Deborah K. VanderVeen, MD

Achievement Awards

  • Mary Elizabeth Aronow, MD
  • Glenn Chung-Wing Yiu, MD, PhD, alumnus
  • Deeba Husain, MD
  • Ann-Marie Lobo, MD, alumna
  • John T. H. Mandeville, MD, PhD, alumnus
  • José-Alain Sahel, MD, alumnus
  • Ilknur Tugal-Tutkun, MD, alumna

Secretariat Awards

  • Neil M. Bressler, MD, alumnus
  • Mary Lou Jackson, MD, alumna
  • John Kanellopoulos, MD, alumnus
  • Cynthia Mattox, MD, alumna
  • Philip J. Rosenfeld, MD, PhD, alumnus
  • Joel S. Schuman, MD, alumnus
  • M. Bruce Shields, MD, alumnus
  • Mitchell B. Strominger, MD, alumnus

International Education Award

  • Ghassan Joseph Cordahi, MD, alumnus
  • Takeshi Kezuka, MD, PhD, alumnus 

Best Paper Award

  • Mass. Eye and Ear Research Fellow Shruti Sinha, MB, BS, for "Incidence of persistent epithelial defect in patients of ocular graft-versus-host-disease"

Best Original Paper, Cornea

  • Mass. Eye and Ear Cornea Fellow Stephan Ong Tone, MDCM, PhD, FRCSC, for "Increased corneal endothelial cell migration in fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy in a DSO model"

Women in Ophthalmology Educators Award

Inaugural Retina Hall of Fame Award

  • Alice R. McPherson, MD, alumna