Controversies in Modern Eye Care 2023: Back to in-person and better than before

Arjan Hura, MD, refractive, cataract, and anterior segment surgeon at the Maloney-Shamie Institute, and co-chair of the 17th annual Controversies in Modern Eye Care meeting held April 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, caught up with Optometry Times®' editor Kassi Jackson to give a sneak peek.

Don't forget to register for the meeting.

Editor's note: This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Jackson:

Hi everyone. I'm Kassi Jackson with Optometry Times and I'm sitting down with Dr. Arjan Hura, who is presenting at the 17th annual Controversies in Modern Eye Care meeting held this April in Los Angeles, California. Welcome Dr. Hura, thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

Hura:

Yeah, thank you Kassi, happy to be here. Like you said, my name is Arjan Hura, I'm a refractive, cataract, and anterior segment surgeon at the Maloney-Shamie Vision Institute in Los Angeles, California. And I'm so excited to announce the return of the Controversies in Modern Eye Care symposium taking place this year on Sunday, April 30, at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, California.

The meeting is going to be chaired by Dr. Robert Maloney, Dr. Neda Shamie, and myself. And it's really hard to believe we're approaching our 20th year anniversary of putting on this event. Historically, this has been the second largest CE meeting for Southern California optometrists. When it was in person prior to the pandemic, we had almost 400 in attendance. And in the last couple years, when we went virtual, that number almost doubled to close to 700.

So this year, I'm excited to announce the return to an in-person format, we have a wonderful array of new and exciting changes. And we also have a hybrid option available for those who are either out of California or unable to make it locally, we have the option for you to stream the whole meeting live from home as well.

The first of the big changes is we're expanding the meeting from a half day to a full day. And what that's allowed is for additional CE, including glaucoma CE and also the addition of wet and dry labs, showcasing the latest in the dry eye space, as well as the ever-expanding MIGS arena, as well. We have a variety of wonderful speakers, both local and national. And we just confirmed our keynote speaker, I'm really excited for this one, I'm not allowed to share quite yet just who it is, but as the head of a global healthcare brand that every single doctor will recognize.

So this will be a full day meeting, we're really excited to see everyone. We'll have breakfast, lunch, there'll be snacks throughout the day, there'll be a lot of time for mingling and networking and a chance to get to know everyone. It will be the first return to form where we're in-person in almost 3 years, so it is really going to be a great event. We're already seeing registrations roll in. So please, if you're free and available Sunday, April 30, at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles.

Jackson:

Wonderful. Well, it sounds like it's gonna be a great meeting. So you know, what are you most excited about to share with attendees?

Hura:

You know, this will actually be the first time where I've met everyone in person. Last year, it was virtual. So while I've met a lot of the doctors, and a lot of people in the community, I'm just most excited to see everyone again in person, to be able to catch up with everyone, to share stories, interact.

There have been a lot of exciting changes in the cataract and refractive space over the past 3 years during the pandemic, a lot of new technologies have emerged and a lot of changes in practice patterns. So I'm really excited to get to share that with everyone.

Jackson:

Great. And you know, what sets this meeting apart from other conferences?

Hura:

I think one thing that historically has made this meeting one, both valuable, but two, a lot of fun and unique, is it's in the title: Controversies in Modern Eye Care.

We're not afraid to tackle controversial topics, we're not afraid to have debate. We're not afraid to showcase both sides to a story. And oftentimes in medicine, there are no absolutes. There's no one right answer. And sometimes there's multiple methods of approaching a clinical scenario; there's multiple ways of diagnosing or treating a condition. And we're happy to have that dialogue with everyone there.

So I think this meeting is really valuable because there's there's no facade, there's no front; you really get the honest opinions of a lot of experts from across a lot of different sub specialties. And I think there's a lot of value there.

Jackson:

Is there anything else you'd like to mention that we haven't touched on?

Hura:

Nope, I think that's it. It's going to be a really, really fun event. Registration is trending towards our being our biggest in-person event ever. So again, if you're free on April 30, we'd love to have you and can't wait to see you there.

Jackson:

That's great. Well Dr. Hura, thank you so much for your time today.