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From the WGA Executive Office
Kuldev Singh, MD MPH, Executive Vice President, World Glaucoma Association
The 7th WGA Global Consensus Meeting, on Medical Therapy for Glaucoma, took place on May 1, 2010 in Ft. Lauderdale, immediately preceding the Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Under the leadership of Bob Weinreb, these meetings have been extraordinarily successful, bringing together the global glaucoma community to create enduring and impactful work that highlight our knowledge, practice and unmet needs. The resulting books that support the consensus statements are among the most widely distributed publications in our profession.
The World Glaucoma Association Global Projects Committee is finalizing plans for the WGA African Glaucoma Summit which is scheduled to take place August 6-7th 2010 at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra, Ghana. The WGA has made a substantial commitment for financial and administrative support of this inaugural meeting which is attracting leaders interested in solving the multitude of problems in the identification and treatment of those with glaucoma in the developing world, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. Leon Herndon, Choka Melamed and Tarek Shaarawy, aided by Mariska van der Veen, deserve much credit for organizing this meeting, details of which can be found at the WGA website.
Also available on the WGA website is information pertaining to the next World Glaucoma Congress to be held in Paris, France from June 29-July 2, 2011. Dennis Lam, Jeff Liebmann, Choka Melamed and Joel Schuman have agreed, once again, to serve as co-chairs for the Congress. WGC Paris promises to be the largest and most comprehensive glaucoma meeting to date. The European Glaucoma Society will be the host society for this Congress. The Congress organizers will be reaching out to leaders in the French glaucoma community to assemble a local organizing committee for this meeting in the coming months.
The global glaucoma community is deeply appreciative of Kugler Publications for making available, free of charge, the World Glaucoma Association Guidelines on the Design and Reporting of Glaucoma Surgical Trials. This document was created with the help of glaucoma leaders throughout the world and edited by Tarek Shaarawy, Mark Sherwood and Franz Grehn. It is the most comprehensive and widely referenced document on this subject worldwide, and can now be accessed through the World Glaucoma Association website. Glaucoma surgery is in a Renaissance, with at least a dozen new devices and procedures being studied at the present time. The easy accessibility of these Guidelines will undoubtedly aid investigators in assessing the efficacy and safety of such novel technologies and procedures. 2010 is an exceptional year as the WGA remain busy with many initiatives, including a formal strategic planning process which will be completed in the next three months.
Best wishes,
Kuldev Singh, MD, MPH Executive Vice President