CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
WEBINAR COVERAGE
Retina: It’s totally Webinar Reminds far out Dude Ophthalmology about Retina Awesomeness by Andrew Sweeney
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here are moments in history when countries, people, cultures and the like experience a collective moment of inspiration. This is when remarkable developments in science and art can be achieved — for example, one such moment in European history was the Renaissance, a period of rebirth and rediscovery in art, science and culture. Is ophthalmology experiencing a similar “zeitgeisty” moment in regard to retina? Perhaps so. And while all of ophthalmology excites the Media MICE team, we have witnessed some
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fascinating developments in retina as of late. This is fitting as the retina is a great symbol of ophthalmology — it is the means by which we create two dimensional images of the visual world and it acts as an image sensor for the brain. A simple explanation of retina function from a lay website like Wikipedia which says “light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical events” has a real effect of profundity.
| March/April 2021
The retina is indeed awesome — not just in the California ‘90s, skater boy sense — but it is truly something that inspires awe in those who see and study it. Thus, the name “Retinawesome” is far more prescient as a title for an ophthalmology webinar than one may initially suspect. The 8th meeting of this online symposium, which took place on February 20, was another development in retina’s apparent “Renaissanceesque” moment. At nearly 5 hours long, there was certainly plenty of material for the webinar’s viewers to digest. It drew ophthalmologists from over a dozen countries in four continents, all presenting their own retina-related case studies. Issues ranged from diabetic vitrectomy, to managing severely