ARVO 2020
Sight-Saving Therapeutics
May 3 -7, 2020
Baltimore Convention Center
1 W Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21201
ARVO 2020 Annual Meeting will be held May 3 – 7 at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Abstract submissions will be Oct. 21 – Dec. 6 for the ARVO 2020 Annual Meeting.
Workshops
Sunday, May 3, 1 – 2:30pm
Effectively communicating your data to tell your scientific story (PUB & MIT)
Organizers: Machelle T. Pardue, Patrick Yu-Wai-Man and M.E. Harnett
Speakers: Janece Shafer, Machelle T. Pardue, Erica Fletcher and Maureen Maguire
This workshop is part of an annual series co-sponsored by the ARVO Publications and Members-in-Training Committees. This workshop will focus on ways to improve communication skills for oral and written presentations.
Overcoming bias through mentorship (DI & GM)
Organizers: Tasneem P. Sharma, Kate E. Keller, Dolly Ann Padovani-Claudio, M. Natalia Vergara, Cesar E. Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo De Garcia, Vikas Khetan, Manju Subramanian, Zohreh Hosseinzadeh
Speakers: Pablo De Gracia, Vikas Khetan, Dolly Ann Padovani- Claudio, Terri L. Young, Michelle C. Callegan, Patricia A. D’Amore
Biases are a common global phenomenon that influences decision making. The aim of the workshop is to understand strategies for circumventing the biases that are faced in the scientific world and how mentorship could help resolve these issues. The focus will include overcoming biases in review, hiring, promotions, professional interactions, implicit bias, and mentorship relationships.
Member-in-Training career forum: Maintaining integrity and avoiding burnout throughout your career (MIT)
Organizer: Kara M. Cavuoto
Speakers: Emily Patterson, Donny Suh, Hans E. Grossniklaus, Julia Haller and Al Sommer
Scientists and clinicians are under pressure to obtain grant support, publish, run a lab, maintain a clinical practice and teach trainees. This is further compounded by individual life stressors. Concern regarding these competing pressures has resulted in a heightened awareness regarding burnout. In this workshop, we assembled a combination of researchers and clinicians at various careers stages to share their perspectives on developing your career to avoid burnout and the importance of work-life balance. Speakers will discuss lessons they have learned, biggest hurdles they have overcome, and what resources are available to help. Small-group discussion will be held in the form of various roundtables focusing on topics from work-life balance to career transitions.
China-ARVO Networking Forum
Organizers: David R. Hinton, Shikun He, Ke Yao and OCAVER
Speakers: Steve Fliesler, Youxin Chen, Zhiqun Tan, Mingwei Zhao, Fan Lu, Amir H. Kashani and Jihong Wu
This is the 15th annual China – ARVO Networking Forum. The purpose of this event is to provide a platform for vision researchers from China, the USA, and other countries to interact, discuss and exchange knowledge in the field of vision research and ophthalmology and to promote collaboration among the scientists. Speakers include leading ophthalmic researchers from China and the USA. At the upcoming meeting, topics will align with the 2020 ARVO “Sight-saving therapeutics.” theme that will show the advanced researches in major blindness eye diseases. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting; a limited lunch will be provided
Building drugs, devices, and novel therapeutics (WEAVR)
Organizers: Stella M. Robertson and Neena B. Haider
Speakers: Shikha Barman, Patricia Zilliox, Margot Goodkin, Ula Jurkunas and Malvina B. Eydelman.
This workshop is made up of a panel of female scientists and clinician-scientists with experience in developing drugs and/or devices, or other treatments (i.e. stem cells, gene therapy) for ophthalmic indications. Each of the panelists will speak about their career path, the development process, successes, and challenges they encountered along the way. A question/answer session will allow for audience participation in the discussion.
Monday, May 4, 1:15 – 2:45pm
Increasing the impact of your research: Social media, new metrics and beyond (AO, GM, MIT and PUB)
Organizers: Daisy Shu and Stephanie Watson
Speakers: Stephanie Watson, Daisy Shu, Jarrod Harman, Erin Hering and Therese Lockemy
The proliferation of social media has enabled people to engage with ease and immediacy on a global scale. More scientists are turning to social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to share their discoveries, keep up with emerging research trends and upcoming events within the scientific community and industry.
Grant writing early-career funding opportunities (MIT)
Organizers: Nawajes Mandal and Wenlin Zhang
Speakers: Neeraj Agarwal, John S. Penn, Matthew Helton and Mengyu Wang
This workshop focuses on providing ARVO trainees with advice on strategies to prepare a successful early-career grant application. A panel of experts from government, non-governmental funding agencies, and industry, as well as current K99/R00 awardee, will provide advice on application preparation and in career development.
Eyes on the prize: Funding resources for the international community (GM)
Organizers: Kate Keller and Ester Carreno
Speakers: Berthold Seitz, Adam Mapani, John Prakash and Fabrice Manns
Numerous funding resources are available for international vision research projects, yet there are various challenges to finding out about these resources and successfully obtaining funding. Presenters in this workshop will discuss various International funding opportunities, the role of the foreign component in a successfully funded NIH grant, potential administrative issues and managing projects across different physical (time zones) and cultural perspectives.
Basic science and translational research on the retina (COS)
Organizer: Yao Ke
Speakers: Ningli Wang, Steven L. Bernstein, Zhengqin Yin, Kapil Bharti, Chen Zhao and Seth Blackshaw.
This session brings together speakers who address the need to improve our understanding of how to better treat retinal diseases. This is a critical question because current therapeutics, in many cases, are still inadequate for stabilizing or preferably reversing losses in visual competence. Today vision scientists and clinicians are interacting with one another to improve the treatment of retinal diseases with gene therapy, stem cell transplantation, and the adoption of new surgical instrumentation as well as procedures. Molecular drug design, stem cell implantation and gene therapy experimentation in animal models have led to discovery of exciting innovative approaches warranting further evaluation before being used to treat patients with retinal diseases. One example of the progress recently made includes improving our understanding of gene-mediated control by different cell types of retinal transduction and processing of visual input. Nevertheless, in many cases the clinician is not able to adequately treat retinal disease. For example, even though AMD is treatable, there are no methods for preventing its onset. Similarly, there are several anti-vEGF strategies to inhibit retinal neovascularization, but each approach has potential drawbacks. One of them is that their therapeutic benefit is patient specific. All of the speakers in this proposed session offer their unique perspective on how to translate their expertise into improving treatment of retinal diseases. Ultimately their insight is expected to assist decision making needed to achieve better outcomes for treating retinal diseases.
2020 Vision for successful NEI investigators (NIH-NEI)
Organizers: Michael Steinmetz and Grace Shen
Speakers: Michael Steinmetz, Anne Schaffner and Sangeeta Bhargava
Whether you are an established investigator who still has pink sheets sitting on the bottom of your drawer, or just starting your research career as a tenure-track early-stage investigator, “2020 Vision for Successful NEI Investigators” workshop will help you to navigate the changing landscape in the application and management of NEI grants. Do you wonder why your budget request was cut in time and/or amount? Do you understand the role of the National Advisory Eye Council in the granting process? What are the latest changes to affect Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs)? Our presentations will include the latest changes affecting NEI investigators. Brief presentations will cover the following topics:
The appropriation process from the president’s budget to grant award
The duties of the National Advisory Eye Council
Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) and their relationship to Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) when applying for funding
Tuesday, April 30, 7 – 8:30am
Breakfast with the experts
Organizers: Members-in-Training Committee
Advance registration required. Trainees, students and junior faculty will benefit from this unique opportunity to network and gain valuable information from those who have been in your shoes! This very popular program offers informal discussions over breakfast on a wide range of topics to provide personal guidance, insight and skills to help you advance your career! Topics will focus on professional development, career guidance, and best practices of interest to basic and clinical trainees and clinician-scientists. A number of the roundtable topics will be specifically tailored to the needs of clinician-scientists.
Wednesday, May 6, 12:15 – 1:45pm
Clinician-Scientist Forum: How to become a successful clinician-scientist (MIT) organizers: Michael Gilhooley and Rupesh Agrawal
Speakers: Pearse Keane, Sophie X. Deng, Neeraj Agarwal and Wong Tien Yin
Clinician-scientists with international reputations will provide insight into the unique challenges and rewards of this career path as they have experienced it. They will provide valuable advice on how to thrive at every stage of the journey. In addition, a representative from the US National Eye Institute (NEI) will be available to discuss their specific funding streams for clinician-scientists.
Preparing for partnering: Core competencies (CR)
Organizers: Vinay Aakalu, Margot Goodkin and Poonam Mudgil
Speakers: Padmaja Shankaridurg, Rekha Rangarajan, Vladimir Bantseev, Sandeep Jain and Houman Hemmati
Partnerships between industry and academia are needed for successful translation of discoveries to clinical application. In particular, drug development requires expertise and resources that may only be available in industry or academia at various points in the development cycle. A better understanding of core elements in drug development would help investigators partner with industry experts. This workshop will highlight critical areas in the process of taking a discovery made in academia through to clinical testing.
Non-invasive assessment of visual system structure and function in animal models (AR)
Organizers: Neena Haider and Andras Komaromy
Speakers: Holly Chinnery, Carol Toris, Mathias Seeliger, Joe Carroll and Nimesh Patel
The use of animal models is vital in vision research, including the better understanding of disease mechanisms as well as the development and pre-clinical testing of novel therapies. Major advances have been made in recent years in technologies that allow the non-invasive functional and morphological assessment of the visual system, including the eye and the central visual pathways. While clinical applications in human subjects may be the primary intended use of many of these technologies, they have also been adapted for application in small and large animal models. These technologies enhance efficiency in animal studies, by reducing the number of animals needed, and thereby address the tenets of the three Rs: reduce, replace and refine. In this workshop, which is organized by the ARVO Animals in Research Committee, the audience will be updated on the application of non-invasive, state-of-the-art technologies for functional and morphological assessment, including high-resolution imaging methods, measurement of aqueous humor dynamics, and functional assessment of the retina and central visual pathways.
NIH-CSR workshop on the peer review of grant applications (NIH-CSR)
Organizers: Paek-Gyu Lee and Michael Chaitin
Speakers: Paek-Gyu Lee, Natalya Gordyenko, Joseph Rudolph, Peter Guthrie, Julius Cinque and Susan Gillmor.
Sponsored by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this workshop is designed to inform grant applicants about the NIH peer review process and also provide information about the study sections that review visual system grant applications. Scientific Review Officers (SROs) from CSR will be present for the presentation and to answer any questions.
New technologies, expanded opportunities for collaboration, and strategies for international vision research in the 2020s (NIH-NEI)
Organizer: Gyan ‘John’ Prakash
Speakers: Santa Tumminia, Radhika Krishnan, Gyan “John” Prakash, Takeshi Iwata, Raj Ramesar and Juliana Maria Ferraz Sallum
New opportunities for addressing global blindness at a much larger scale have arisen in part to the advent and application of new technologies in vision research and healthcare delivery, the formation of several large international research consortia for various eye diseases, and the creation and expansion of several large databases for eye diseases in various parts of the world. There are over 39 million people around the world who are blind and additional 246 million are not able to see properly. Eighty percent of blindness is considered preventable, however, a comprehensive research strategy and international research collaborations between the developed and developing world need to increase. Many of the reasons for causing blindness have been researched, but in several areas of the world, a coordinated strategy for basic science and health services research is required to achieve reduction of the global burden of eye diseases and implementation of research findings. The ARVO session will address new technologies, expanded research opportunities available to a large group of investigators, new research databases for various eye diseases, and strategies for international vision research collaboration at the global level.
Symposia
Sunday, May 3, 8 – 10am
Crossroads between the nervous and immune systems in ocular development, health and disease
Organizers: Daniel Saban and Andrew Dick
Speakers: John Forrester, Fu Shin Yu, Daniel Saban, Monica Vetter, Soyon Hong and Francisco Quintana
The inextricable link between the nervous and immune systems has been appreciated since antiquity. From the first century text, De Medicina, where Celsus described the pain as a cardinal sign of inflammation, there have since been many discoveries of how neurons modulate immunity and vice versa. This symposium wishes to further unravel the enigmatic underpinning mechanisms and facilitate discussion of the neuro-immune axis in the context of the eye. Presentations will cover neuro-inflammatory settings in the brain during immune homeostasis, dementia and inflammatory disorders to accelerate our current understanding of ocular pathobiology, including optic nerve and retina, where anatomic and cellular homologies between the brain and eye exist, as well as peripheral neuro-immune axis in the eye such as the cornea. The symposium will pave the way for exciting discussions, new opportunities, and challenges for fundamental and translational eye research.
Personalized science: Understanding human ocular disease using stem cell models
Organizers: Stephen Russell and Mineo Kondo
Speakers: Budd Tucker, Masayo Takahashi, Jason Meyer, Jeffrey Goldberg, Michael Cheetham and Shukti Chakravarti
Rapid advances in stem cell technology, especially induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cell generation and culture, have spawned a wide array of potential applications to human disease. In addition to attempts at direct tissue replacement, the utilization of diseased, human-derived iPS cells unlocks the capacity to understand cell-level hypotheses related to genetic phenotype-genotype relationships, mechanisms of disease, and drug effects even for rare, orphan or individual family-specific diseases. This symposium will survey these approaches applied to anterior and posterior ocular tissue targets.
Thursday, May 7, 8 – 10am
Epigenomics and personalized medicine: “Across the globe”
Organizers: Goldis Malek and James M. Fadool
Speakers: Jayakrishna Ambati, Tara Moore, Ales Cvekl, Renu Kowluru, Michael Dyer and Louise Porter
Epigenomics and investigating accumulation of epigenetic modifications are emerging fields of study in ophthalmology, information from which has the potential to help guide individualized prevention and treatment strategies for various ocular diseases. In the spirit of the ARVO 2020 theme “Sight Saving Therapeutics”, this symposium will bring together leading scientists who will share their latest research on the role epigenomics is playing not only during development but also in shaping future personalized medicine for ocular diseases involving tissues from the anterior and posterior segments, including corneal dystrophies, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration.
Clinical applications of artificial intelligence in the eye
Organizers: Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, Bianca S. Gerendas
Speakers: Michael Abramoff, Kaushal Solanki, Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, Bianca S. Gerendas, Rhail Garnavi and Aaron Lee
This symposium will cover the advances of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, including machine learning and deep learning methods for clinical applications. The symposium shall discuss the future potential of both scientific developments as well as marketed products that have been approved for clinical use and their evaluation in clinical practice.
Education Courses
ARVO is pleased to present the Education Course selection for 2020. All courses will be held May 2 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Md. Choose between Full day or Half-day courses. Separate registration is required for all Education Courses. Information about each course is listed below.
Full-day courses
AI Vision 2020
8am – 4:30pm
Organizers: Michael David Abramoff, MD, PhD, FARVO, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, CEO, IDx and Daniel SW Ting, MD, PhD, Singapore National Eye Centre
Now that AI is being implemented clinically around the world, practicing clinicians need to know how to evaluate, interpret and compare the scientific evidence on safety, efficacy and equity of clinical AI. Young researchers need to know how to get started with simple AI toolboxes to use in their own research (using both image-based and nonimage-based data) and seasoned researchers and clinician-scientists need to know about the latest innovations in AI and potential future applications. All need to understand and work within the ethical, legal, regularity and reimbursement framework for clinical AI.
Clinicians will leave this course with information and strategies to help them know whether to adopt the technology. This includes how to evaluate AI studies, and describe policy, regulation and payment issues. Young researchers will learn about the basics of using AI for science, the tools required and challenges that must be overcome. All will leave the course knowing about the latest research and new opportunities for collaboration.
After attending this course, the participant will be able to:
Define AI and related methodologies
Describe the underlying principles of AI
State examples of AI application in research and medical technology
Summarize challenges associated with AI
Discuss the potential future of AI
Diabetic retinopathy: Moving the field forward
8am – 4:30pm
Organizers: Renu A Kowluru, PhD, FARVO, Wayne State University, Kresge Eye Institute and Arup Das, MD, PhD, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, NM VA Health Care System
Despite tremendous progress in developments of treatment, the management of diabetic macular edema and proliferative diabetic retinopathy remains challenging. The current anti-VEGF therapies are not optimal as many patients respond poorly with this treatment. Clinician-scientists must be up to date regarding the management of these patients with newer pharmacotherapy protocols based on results of recently finished, multi-center clinical trials and the use of new diagnostic tools.
In this course, clinicians and basic scientists in the field will address various aspects of diabetic retinopathy including how to set up a clinical trial, genetic associations and novel single-cell technology and imaging techniques. The course will provide an outstanding platform for the vision community for a balanced discussion of the experimental and clinical aspects of diabetic retinopathy.
After attending this course, the participant will be able to:
Review the clinical aspects, epidemiology, systemic factors and genetics of diabetic retinopathy.
Describe the new experimental models, molecular mechanism and role of various retinal cell types.
Identify the role of inflammation, mitochondria damage and microRNAs in diabetic retinopathy.
Evaluate the major, ongoing clinical trials on therapies in diabetic retinopathy.
Describe the novel therapies including pharmacotherapies.
Summarize the diagnostic studies, novel biomarkers and utilization of artificial intelligence in diabetic retinopathy.
Genome surgery and base editing: From biology to therapy
8:30am – 4:30pm
Organizer: Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD, Columbia University
In the current era of personalized medicine, a large number of genetic variants in patients with various diseases have been identified using next-generation sequencing. Recent advances in genetic engineering, genotyping, high-resolution imaging, and biomarker testing have made it easier to deliver the right treatments to the right patients at the right time. This course serves to present an overview of gene-editing strategies from the leading experts who have pioneered it in other disciplines, followed by examples in eye and vision science and practical applications. Information that will be covered in this course includes variants of CRISPR and Cas proteins, guide RNA (gRNA) selection and synthesis, gene editing, RNA editing, delivery to a cell, and off-target analysis.
Bring your laptop for the interactive afternoon workshop.
After attending this course, the participant will be able to:
Discuss the latest advances in genome engineering and its translational applications to various diseases
Compare and contrast the benefits and uses of different gene-editing strategies
Identify the best practices for selecting gRNAs that are both highly active and specific
Ocular drug delivery: Fundamentals, challenges and technologies
8am – 4:30pm
Organizers: Ash Jayagopal, PhD, Kodiak Sciences Inc. and Uday Kompella, PhD, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus
Ocular drug delivery is an evolving field featuring cutting-edge advances in devices, formulations, and paradigms for design and characterization. This course will draw upon experts in the various disciplines of the field in order to instruct attendees on how to apply key concepts in drug delivery to improve upon the translational value of their research endeavors.
Key topics will include fundamentals and pharmacokinetics of drug delivery to the anterior and posterior segment, anatomical and tissue barriers for ocular drug biodistribution, models for evaluating drug delivery systems, as well as advances in device, formulation, polymer, and lipid technologies, as well as regulatory and clinical considerations for incorporation of drug delivery technologies in the clinic.
After attending this course, the participant will be able to:
Identify significant ocular tissue barriers for drug delivery and clearance in the eye
Develop competency in comparing ocular drug delivery systems and formulations to propose optimal strategies for delivery of small molecules and macromolecules including oligonucleotides, gene therapies, and protein drugs
Describe the regulatory process for approval of drug delivery devices and formulations
Identify and apply state-of-the-art platform technologies for ocular drug delivery in anterior and posterior segment diseases, including those based on polymer, lipid, implant, and nanoparticulate technologies
Half-day courses
Evidence-based approach to the myopia epidemic: Basis, implications and unmet needs
8am – 12pm
Organizers: Mark A. Bullimore, MCOptom, PhD, University of Houston, College of Optometry and Noel A. Brennan, MOptom, PhD, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
The course will tackle areas of under-researched importance in the field of myopia. The recently published International Myopia Institute (IMI) workshop did not address the epidemiology of the condition nor the complications arising from high myopia. Further, the landscape surrounding treatment options, their implementation and success is rapidly changing and since the gap in time between the first drafts of the IMI report and the course will be some two years, there is scope for significant change in thinking. In particular, the question of one can expect in terms of efficacy and how to interpret published data has not been a focus of attention and this course will attend to this topic. The course will also discuss unmet needs including solving the mechanisms of onset, refractive progression and disease development and capacity to predict those at risk, appropriate equipment, metrics for monitoring, instrumentation and hardware needs, software opportunities, delivery of care, education and advocacy.
After attending this course, the participant will be able to:
Compare regional projections for prevalence of myopia, high myopia and associated disease
Appraise the extent of the human and economic threat posed by myopia
Assess the basis of the myopia epidemic in terms of genetic and environmental risk factors
Evaluate options for delaying onset and slowing progression of myopia
Expectations with regard to treatment efficacy
Recognize pitfalls in interpreting the general myopia rhetoric
The nuts and bolts of data analysis for vision research
8am – 12pm
Organizers: Alison Abraham, PhD, MS, MHS, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University and Maureen Maguire, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Have you ever wondered what to do with both eyes in your dataset? Or how to obtain an average visual acuity or refractive error? Data from vision research can stymie researchers trying to make the most out of the hard work of collecting it. This course will teach simple and accessible tools for understanding and appropriately analyzing data with a focus on data exploration, two sample comparisons and data presentation. We will discuss ways to include both eyes in studies/experiments and in analysis and show the harm when the correlation is not accommodated appropriately. We will examine data from vision function tests to understand the statistical problems that arise and work through practical examples of how to handle the non-normally distributed or bounded data that are common in vision research. The course will provide an introduction to analytic tools and give researchers information on when more advanced methods are needed. Lastly, we will show how data visualization methods and techniques can be leveraged to make research presentations more accessible and impactful. Following the course, attendees will understand the challenges and appropriate handling of vision research data, choose appropriate statistical tools to make the most of the information, and be able to present the data and results in a meaningful and accessible way.
After attending this Education Course, the participant will be able to:
Identify the measurements most often used in vision research and how to analyze them appropriately
Explain the problems that arise with improper handling of ocular data
Recognize simple statistical analysis for the various type of correlated ocular data including continuous data (normal or skewed distributed), binary data or ordinal data
Evaluate graphical and statistical tools to understand vision data and chose the best vision metric for your question
Describe data visualization best practices to improve the impact and accessibility of data reports and presentations
Night vision in aging, AMD and beyond: Basic and clinical aspects
1 – 5pm
Organizers: Christine A. Curcio PhD, FARVO, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Cynthia Owsley PhD, MPH, FARVO, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Data accrued over the last 25 years indicate that an important characteristic of vision in aging and AMD is that rod photoreceptors are affected earlier and more severely than are cones. These findings have been comprehensively contextualized as related to changes in the choriocapillaris – Bruch’s membrane – RPE complex that are precursors to characteristic AMD pathology. The overall concept of “night vision testing in AMD” was solidified in 2016 with the results of a well-powered prospective study (Alabama Age-related Maculopathy Study, ALSTAR) (PMID 26522707). Further, in this large cohort of older adults, the ARMS2 AMD susceptibility locus was associated with delayed dark adaptation, even in persons with healthy maculas, just this year (PMID 30389424). Clinicians could be taking advantage of new technology in testing rod function as an early indicator of macular disease and new knowledge on the outer neurovascular unit in their interpretation of clinical imaging. In particular, the presence and distribution of rods and the comparative vision of rods and cones can be used to good effect to dissect mechanisms. Scientists could be directing effort into developing responsive tests of visual function for application to human studies and for addressing clinically relevant aspects of visual function beyond acuity and light sensitivity. All could be using visual functional tests as a readout assay for aging and pathology in the choriocapillaris – Bruch’s membrane – RPE complex. In turn, better knowledge of visual function and explanatory hypotheses that are well-supported in human biology can inform development of rapid and non-invasive tests based on imaging. Finally, this vertically oriented physiologic unit is the front end of the entire visual system, and thus understanding how to probe it functionally can inform the study of many retinal diseases, including diabetic retinopathy.
We expect that the information to be covered is still very new and distributed among different scientific communities not yet aware of their significant synergy and overlap (i.e., visual function testing, retinal cell biology, clinical studies including multimodal imaging). It has really come together only in the last 3 years, due to the outcome of a large prospective study and approval of new devices that expand the range of functional testing of rod vision. We wish to inform investigators using model systems (non-foveate animals, cell culture) interested in accurate human visual neuroscience and up-to-date understanding of visual function and retinal structure in aging and AMD.
After attending this Education Course, the participant will be able to:
List the layers of AMD pathology impacting macular photoreceptor function
Compare technologies available for testing rod-mediated visual function
Explain the major differences between the two retinoid cycles
Identify experimental strategies to assess rod and cone function in an older patient
Cite ways to update standardized tests and assessments to include rod-mediated function
Evaluate critical literature on visual function testing in AMD
Patient data: Recognition, evaluation, incorporation and practice
1 – 5pm
Organizers: Avril Daly, CEO, Retina International and Orla Galvin, PhD, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Retina International
Without real world evidence providing the true value of the impact of disease on patients and of the benefits therapy can provide to patients; access to diagnosis, interventions and clinical trials will remain a challenge for most across disease areas. This course will cover why and how patient data can be utilized to access diagnosis and provide a better understanding of complex and rare conditions. This course will cover why and how collaboratively all stakeholders in the patient journey can aid in the collection of patient data to be included in centralised registers. This course will cover how all of the above will enable the development of multi-centre Clinical Trials for small populations. This course will cover how to incorporate patient engagement in research from bench to bedside.
After attending this Education Course, the participant will be able to:
Recognize, describe and discuss what patient data is
Evaluate patient data
Recognize the importance of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures
Incorporate patient engagement strategies in your practice/research
