ARVO to examine disparities in eye care

Fort Lauderdale, FL-More than 10,000 vision professionals are expected to attend the 2009 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) here from Sunday, May 3 to Thursday, May 7.
This year’s theme is “Reducing Disparities in Eye Disease and Treatment.” Disparities across racial, ethnic, gender, age, geographic, and socioeconomic groups will be explored. Contributing factors such as lifestyle, culture, language, and religious beliefs also will be examined.

Following are some of the highlights planned for the meeting:

Keynote Session
The ARVO/Alcon Keynote Session will be held Sunday from 5:15 to 7 p.m. Hugh R. Taylor, MD, will speak on the topic “Washington to Ouagadougou: Who deserves to see?” He will explore how disparities in eye health around the world are being addressed, asserting that all people, despite their income level, have the right to sight.
Dr. Taylor is the Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health at the Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Australia. He has worked among the world’s most disadvantaged populations during his career, which has been devoted to research on strategies for the prevention and control of blinding diseases, particularly trachoma.

Basic/Clinical Lecture
This year’s Basic/Clinical Lecture, “Diabetic retinopathy: A global epidemic,” will focus on epidemiologic disparities and similarities of diabetic retinopathy throughout the world and highlight advances on diagnostic imaging and therapies. It will be held Sunday from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m.
Moderators will be Paolo Lanzetta, Steven Schwartz, and Arup Das. Speakers will be Ronald Klein, Aravinda Chakravarti, Arup Das, Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, Mark Blumenkranz, Lloyd P. Aiello, and Paolo Lanzetta.

Symposia
Symposia that cover a broad range of vision science topics will be held on Sunday.

• Socio-Economic Disparities in Access to and Use of Eye Care, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
  This symposium will highlight the inequalities in disadvantaged communities throughout the world that lead to the need for preventing blindness and how these needs are being addressed by individuals and groups.

• Oxidative Stress in Ocular Disease: Theories and Therapies, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
  This symposium will feature six experts on the role of oxidative stress in ocular disease. Evidence from cellular studies will be coordinated with data from new animal models and clinical findings. Academic and industry representatives will participate.

• Inflammation: Different Diseases, Common Themes, 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
  Speakers will explore many aspects of inflammation in the context of understanding and managing ocular disease.

• New Insights into Retinal Diseases Using Imaging and Functional Techniques, 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
  New imaging technologies allow layer-by-layer analysis of retinal structure. Damaged retinal structures can be identified and followed during progression of the disease and treatment. Retinal visual function also must be evaluated, however. Structure-function relationship is the ideal approach for objective assessment of the disease state of the retina and of treatment efficacy. This symposium will review both modalities.

• The Impact of Vision Loss on the Individual, 2:45 to 4:45 p.m.
  This symposium will review the current state of the art in questionnaire-based and performance-based assessment of vision-related activities, and translation into quality-of-life and utility measures.
  

Minisymposia
Each of ARVO’s sections organizes minisymposia during the annual meeting. Here is this year’s lineup.

• The Nitric Oxide/Carbon Monoxide System: Is it a Tool for New Treatments in Ophthalmology? Monday, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

• What Damages Ganglion Cells in Glaucoma? Monday, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

• Infections as a Cause of Global Blindness, Monday, 1:45 to 3:30 p.m.

• Visual Performance with Adaptive Optics Correction, Monday, 3:45 to 5:30 p.m.

• Optic Nerve Regeneration: A Dream or an Approaching Reality? Monday, 3:45 to 5:30 p.m.

• Targeted Therapy in Uveal Melanoma, Tuesday, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

• Reducing Disparities in Treatments: Combining Therapies for Treating Retinal Diseases, Tuesday, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

• Genetic Pathways of Lens Formation, Tuesday, 1:45 to 3:30 p.m.

• Photoreceptor Cilium and Associated, Tuesday, 3:45 to 5:30 p.m.

• Suppression in Strabismus and Amblyopia, Wednesday, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.

• RGS Proteins in the Retina and Their Function for Vision, Wednesday, 1:45 to 3:30 p.m.

• Translational Animal Models of Immunotherapeutics: Getting Closer to Man? Wednesday, 3:45 to 5:30 p.m.

• Fundus Autofluorescence: Perspectives and New Directions, Thursday, 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  

Workshops
Several workshops are scheduled this year:

• ARVO/Alcon Clinician-Scientist Mentor/Mentee Workshop: Proactive Strategies for a Successful Mentor-Mentee Interaction (Sponsored by the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research through a grant from Alcon) Sunday, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

• ARVO-AUPO Workshop: Do You Want to be a Chair of Ophthalmology? (Organized department chairs and co-sponsored by the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology) Sunday, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

• Getting Published: Advice and Admonitions (Organized by the Members-in-Training Committee) Sunday, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

• Emerging Non-Mammalian Models of Ocular Disease (Organized by the Animals in Research Committee) Sunday, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

• EVER/ARVO: Targeting Glaucoma Beyond IOP (Jointly organized by the European Association for Eye and Vision Research and ARVO) Sunday, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

• NEI Grant Writing Workshop, Monday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• U.S.-China Networking Luncheon (Sponsored by Vision 66) Monday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Ethics Related to Clinical Trials Registration (Organized by the Ethics & Regulations in Human Research Committee and the Commercial Relationships Committee) Monday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Clinician-Scientist Forum (Organized by the Members-in-Training Committee) Tuesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Communicating Across Cultures to Achieve Research Excellence (Organized by the Diversity Issues Committee) Wednesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Indo-U.S. Research Collaboration Workshop (Organized by D. Balasubramanian) Wednesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• NIH-CSR Peer Review Workshop (Sponsored by the NIH Center for Scientific Review) Wednesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.
  

Cross-sectional groups
If your interests are not easily defined by just one ARVO scientific section, consider these cross-sectional group platform sessions.

• Nanotechnology Group: New Applications of Nanotechnology to Ophthalmology, Monday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Multidisciplinary Ophthalmic Imaging Group: New Horizons in Optical Imaging, Tuesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.

• Genetics Group: Recent Advances in Genome Analysis: CNVs and Next Generation Sequencing, Wednesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.