Controversies in Modern Eye Care 2023: Dr Maloney shares his presentation sneak peek and what he's most excited about

Robert Maloney, MD, of the Maloney-Shamie Vision Institute in Los Angeles, California, as well as co-chair of the Controversies in Modern Eye Care symposium, shares a sneak peek of his presentation, "Where are we going with refractive surgery?" which he presented during the 17th annual Controversies in Modern Eye Care Symposium in Los Angeles. He also shared reflections on what he's most excited about for today's symposium and what makes this meeting stand out from other eye care meetings.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Emily Kaiser:

Hi, everyone. I'm Emily Kaiser with Optometry Times, and I'm sitting down with Dr. Robert Maloney, who is presenting and serving as co-chair at the 17th annual Controversies in Modern Eye Care meeting in Los Angeles, California. Welcome, Dr. Maloney, thank you for taking the time to talk to us.

Robert Maloney, MD:

Well, it's my pleasure. Great to be here with you.

Kaiser:

Can you please give us a sneak peak of your presentation?

Maloney:

I sure can. I'll be talking about, "Refractive surgery: where are we going?" And I think it's hard to tell where we're going without looking at where we've been. So I'll briefly review, to be honest, my mistakes in the past with refractive surgery—the mistakes and assessing technologies I've made and why I made them, and then try and apply those lessons to help the audience better assess refractive surgery in the future and where it's going.

Kaiser:

So can you tell me a little bit about what sets the Controversies in Modern Eye Care meeting apart from other conferences?

Maloney:

The Controversies in Modern Eye Care meeting has been going for 17 years now. We've always tried to approach education [by] focusing on the areas of controversy, rather than a didactic review of a subject. We're trying to make this feel like hot topics rather than a lecture you might get an optometry school or ophthalmology residency. So that's our goal: focus on the areas of controversy and hopefully, you leave learning more about where the world is going in ophthalmology and optometry.

Kaiser:

That's really exciting. That's such a cool way to look at it. What are you most excited to share with attendees?

Maloney:

This year's meeting is a significant expansion from previous years. It used to be a half-day meeting; this year, it's going to be an all-day meeting. We have a breakfast symposium, we have a lunchtime speaker. We have symposia on retina, glaucoma, thyroid disease. So we've really expanded the format this year in cooperation with our new partners, Physician Education Resources.

Kaiser:

That sounds fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing and we really look forward to covering this meeting and can't wait to hear more from you.

Maloney:

My pleasure.