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From the WGA Executive Office
Kuldev Singh, MD MPH, Executive Vice President, World Glaucoma Association
This fall has been a turbulent time for many around the world. Crashing financial markets have impacted virtually everyone. The WGA, however, continues to grow and our plans for the World Glaucoma Congress to be held in Boston, US from July 8-11, 2009 are proceeding well. We expect this Congress to be the largest and most comprehensive glaucoma meeting ever held.
In planning the World Glaucoma Congress, the work of one individual has stood out amongst all involved. Erik Greve, the founding Executive Vice President and current Vice-President of the Association is a co-chair of the Congress Organizing Committee along with President Remo Susanna and myself. Erik has put tremendous effort into making sure that the upcoming Congress will be a great success and, on a personal level, I can't thank him enough for his continued leadership within the Association. Erik is always available, incredibly creative and completes all projects, large and small, at lightening speed. Additionally, past World Glaucoma Association Presidents Roger Hitchings, Bob Weinreb and Ivan Goldberg have, as always, provided much valuable guidance at all Congress planning stages.
The Program Committee, which is co-chaired by Dennis Lam, Jeff Liebmann, Choka Melamed and Joel Schuman has put together an exciting agenda. Of the over 250 invited speakers for this meeting, more than 95% of the respondents have accepted. Among our important collaborators for this meeting are leaders from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). It is noteworthy that both the current President and President-Elect of ASCRS, Brad Shingleton and Alan Crandall respectively, are glaucoma specialists. Brad and Alan are co-chairs of the Congress Surgical Subcommittee. In Boston, there will be an even greater emphasis on surgery and surgical advances regarding patients with glaucoma, with or without cataract, relative to the prior congresses in Vienna and Singapore. We expect that the surgical video aspects of this meeting will be particularly well received.
Boston is home to Harvard University and Lou Pasquale, a prominent glaucoma specialist at Harvard along with David Greenfield, representing the host American Glaucoma Society, have been hard at work as co-chairs of the Local Organizing Committee. The social events in Vienna and Singapore have set a high bar, but Lou and David, along with fellow Committee members Bob Bellows, Theresa Chen, Tom Hutchinson, Cindie Mattox, Doug Rhee, Brad Shingleton and Martin Wand have come up with some creative ideas that will continue the tradition. Having a city with the history and intellectual tradition of Boston at their disposal certainly helps.
For those of you who like to plan ahead, Amsterdam, the city which is home to Erik Greve and Caroline Greve-Geijssen, both of whom form the heart and soul of our Association, has been chosen to be the site of the 2011 World Glaucoma Congress.
