2019 Annual Symposium
The 68th Annual Symposium will be held February 15th-17th, 2019 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, 500 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130.
Participants will learn from the brightest ophthalmologists from around the country on the topics of Glaucoma, Retina, and Neuro-ophthalmology.
Program Highlights:
- Update on latest glaucoma clinical and surgical studies
- Combined cataract and glaucoma surgery approaches
- Glaucoma surgical management: Indications, patient selection, technique, complication management, outcomes
- Update on low tension glaucoma/Optic neuropathy evaluation
- Use of visual fields in detecting progression
- Glaucoma Therapy and Compliance
- Update on AMD
- Covering the spectrum on diabetic retinopathy
- Update on DME
- Update on optic neuropathy: Work up for the general ophthalmologist
- Neuro-ophthalmology and testing: VEP, OCT, Visual Fields, MRI
- History taking in neurologic disorders
- Neuro-ophthalmology diagnoses not to miss
- Medications that can blind your patient
- Update on idiopathic intracranial hypertension – treatment management and surgical management
- Retina vs. Optic Nerve: Who you gonna call?
Intimate Roundtables, question & answer sessions, hand-on workshops and much more!
Hotel Information
A block of rooms at the host hotel, the Sheraton New Orleans, have been reserved for registrants, exhibitors, and technicians, at the special rate of $239.00. Click here to reserve a room or call the Sheraton at (504) 525-2500 and mention the New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology.
If you are a NOAO member, please log in and visit your member page to register. Otherwise, please register by clicking the button below.
Click here to download a copy of the 2019 program and registration brochure.
2019 Confirmed Faculty Speakers
Davinder S. Grover, M.D., Glaucoma Associates of Texas, Dallas, TX
L. Jay Katz, M.D., Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
Andrew Lee, M.D., Houston Methodist Eye Associates, Houston, TX
William Mieler, M.D., University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Peter Netland, M.D., PhD, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Valerie Purvin, M.D., Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN
Joseph Rizzo III, M.D., Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA
Hady Saheb, M.D., M.P.H., McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Steven R. Sarkisian, Jr., M.D., Dean McGee Eye Institute, Oklahoma City, OK
Joel Schuman, M.D., NYU Langone Medical Center,New York, NY
Speaker Biographies
Davinder S. Grover, MD is an attending surgeon and clinician at Glaucoma Associates of Texas located in Dallas. He specializes in the medical and surgical management of complex glaucoma as well as complex cataract surgery. His research interests include international ophthalmology, innovative glaucoma surgeries, and clinical outcomes in medical and surgical glaucoma management.
Dr. Grover has authored numerous peer-review publications reporting innovative and novel glaucoma surgical techniques and findings. Additionally, he has authored several book chapters and serves as a reviewer for many of the premier journals in the field (Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, JAMA Ophthalmology, British Journal of Ophthalmology and Journal of Glaucoma). Dr. Grover serves on various committees and subcommittees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Glaucoma Society, focusing on patient care, patient education and technology.
Committed to the pursuit of knowledge and education, he continues to present his research, instructs various surgical courses and gives lectures at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meetings as well as at the American Glaucoma Society annual meetings. Currently, Dr. Grover leads the clinical research team at Glaucoma Associates of Texas (GAT).
L. Jay Katz, MD is Chief of the Wills Eye Glaucoma Service and a Professor of Ophthalmology at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. He has wide-ranging interests in glaucoma, including drug evaluation, the roles of laser and medical management in glaucoma treatment and optic nerve scanning methodologies and he has delivered hundreds of lectures, teaching sessions and courses on these topics.
Dr. Katz has published more than 180 articles in such journals as Archives of Ophthalmology, the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, and the Journal of Glaucoma. He is an Editorial Board member for Journal of Glaucoma, Survey of Ophthalmology, and Graefe’s Archives of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. He has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 30 books and book chapters. He has been an investigator in landmark multi-center trials in glaucoma such as the Glaucoma Laser Trial (GLT), the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS), and the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS).
Dr. Katz has been the recipient of various awards, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Senior Achievement Award (2002), the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology’s Faculty Award (2003),Distinguished Alumnus of the Yale University Eye Center (2003), Honored Life Member of the Philadelphia Ophthalmic Club in (2007) and the Silver Tray Award at Wills Eye Hospital (2012).
He received his medical degree from Yale University Medical School, New Haven, and completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, a residency in Ophthalmology at Yale, and a Fellowship in Glaucoma at Wills Eye Hospital.
Andrew Lee, MD is chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Jack S. Blanton Eye Institute of the Houston Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. He is Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College; Adjunct professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Iowa and at Baylor College of Medicine; Clinical Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Buffalo, SUNY.
Dr Lee has served on the national and international Editorial Board of 15 journals including Archives of Ophthalmology, AJO, the CJO, the Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology, the Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology, Survey of Ophthalmology, and Eye and is the founding editor in chief emeritus of the Journal of Clinical and Academic Ophthalmology.
He has published over 400 peer-reviewed publications, 40 book chapters, and nine full textbooks in ophthalmology. He has been the invited speaker at over 350 national and international eye meetings and has given 12 named lectureships. Dr. Lee has a special interest in graduate medical education and has received the resident teaching award seven times at five different academic institutions.
is Chief of the Wills Eye Glaucoma Service and a Professor of Ophthalmology at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. He has wide-ranging interests in glaucoma, including drug evaluation, the roles of laser and medical management in glaucoma treatment and optic nerve scanning methodologies and has delivered hundreds of lectures, teaching sessions and courses on these topics.
Dr. Katz has published more than 180 articles in such journals as Archives of Ophthalmology, the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, and the Journal of Glaucoma. He is an Editorial Board member for Journal of Glaucoma, Survey of Ophthalmology, and Graefe’s Archives of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. He has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 30 books and book chapters. He has been an investigator in landmark multi-center trials in glaucoma such as the Glaucoma Laser Trial (GLT), the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS), and the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS).
Dr. Katz has been the recipient of various awards, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Senior Achievement Award (2002), the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology’s Faculty Award (2003),Distinguished Alumnus of the Yale University Eye Center (2003), Honored Life Member of the Philadelphia Ophthalmic Club in (2007) and the Silver Tray Award at Wills Eye Hospital (2012).
He received his medical degree from Yale University Medical School, New Haven, and completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, a residency in Ophthalmology at Yale, and a Fellowship in Glaucoma at Wills Eye Hospital.
William Mieler, MD is an expert in treating diseases of the macula, retina and vitreous. His primary research interests are ocular pharmacology, exploring drug delivery to the posterior segment of the eye, uptake and potential toxicity of topical, periocular and systemic medications, intraocular tumors and response to therapy and ocular imaging. He also participates in numerous national clinical trials for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, venous occlusive diseases and vitreoretinal interface disorders. Dr. Mieler received the Life Achievement Honor Award from the American Board of Ophthalmology (AAO) and served as its director, vice-chair and chair. He is a past president of the Macula Society, which awarded the 2013 J. Donald Gass Medal to him for his outstanding contributions to the study of macular diseases. He has published 330 peer-reviewed articles, 70 book chapters and edited or co-edited six ophthalmic textbooks. He has delivered 19 named lectures, served on editorial boards for three ophthalmic journals and is a reviewer for 22 additional journals. He is Retina Section Trustee and President-Elect of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Dr. Mieler also served on several committees of the American Board of Medical Specialties. He joined the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in 2008.
Peter Netland, MD, PhD is professor and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Virginia. He completed his undergraduate education at Princeton University, his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco, and his PhD degree at Harvard University. Following a surgical internship at the UCSF, he undertook his residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a clinical fellowship in glaucoma at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.
His research interests have focused primarily on pharmacologic effects and surgical techniques in glaucoma, and he is an active clinician caring for glaucoma patients. After completion of his training, he was appointed instructor, promoted to assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, and served as associate director of the glaucoma service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee Department of Ophthalmology as associate professor and director of the glaucoma service. He was awarded tenure in 1999 and promoted to professor of ophthalmology in 2002. During the same year, he was named the Siegal Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology. In 2009, he was appointed DuPont Guerry, III Professor of Ophthalmology and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Dr. Netland has received both the Achievement Award and the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a special associate examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and has served on numerous AAO Committees, state specialty societies and subspecialty societies. Dr. Netland has given numerous international, national and regional presentations. In the peer-reviewed literature, he has written over 300 original scientific articles, reviews and published abstracts. He has published five textbooks, most recently The Pediatric Glaucomas (Elsevier) and the second edition of Glaucoma Medical Therapy, published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oxford University Press.
Valerie Purvin, MD graduated with from the University of Wisconsin in 1969 with a B.A. in philosophy. She completed pre-medical curriculum at Columbia University and graduated from Tulane Medical School in 1978. After serving her internship at Tulane University Affiliated Hospitals in New Orleans, and her residency at Tulane University, she completed a fellowship in Neuro-ophthalmology at the L.S.U. Eye Center.
Currently, Dr. Purvin is a Clinical professor of Ophthalmology and Neurology and the Indiana University Medical Center. She is also the director of the Neuro-ophthalmology Section at the Midwest Eye Institute.
Dr. Purvin has authored 17 book chapters and has published over 70 articles for ophthalmic journals on a wide variety of Neuro-ophthalmology topics and recently co-authored a book with Dr. Aki Kawasaki entitled Common Neuro-ophthalmic Pitfalls. She has given over 125 presentations across the country.
Dr. Purvin is a reviewer for Ophthalmology, Stroke, Archives of Ophthalmology, Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology, Neurology Network Commentary, Neuro-ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Austral and New Zealand J Ophthalmology, Ocular Allergy and Inflammation, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Journal of Neuro Sciences, Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, Canadian J Neurological Sciences, British J Ophthalmology, and Neuromuscular Disorders. She is also on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Neuro-ophthalmology.
Joseph Rizzo III, MD sees complex neuro-ophthalmic disorders by referral within New England and worldwide. His clinical expertise informs his research, and he devotes a major portion of his professional focus to developing new therapeutic options for patients with vision disorders.
After obtaining his MD from Louisiana State University, Dr. Rizzo completed his neurology residency at Tufts University/New England Medical Center and an ophthalmology residency at Boston University. Subsequently, he joined Harvard Ophthalmology as a Clinical Fellow in Neuro-Ophthalmology and has served as a full-time faculty member since 1986.
Dr. Rizzo focuses his research on understanding the mechanisms of vision loss, improving diagnostic methods, and developing new treatments for blinding diseases. In particular, his clinical research includes the study of optic neuritis/multiple sclerosis, ischemic optic neuropathy, pseudotumor cerebri, and giant cell arteritis. He also founded the Boston Retinal Implant Project in the late 1980s to develop a retinal prosthesis and offer a new therapeutic option for patients who have acquired blindness.
Each year, Dr. Rizzo supervises and teaches three clinical fellows and eight residents in the basic evaluation and management of neuro-ophthalmic disorders. As Director of the Neuro-Ophthalmology Service, he also designs and provides oversight for the fellowship program in Neuro-Ophthalmology. For more than 25 years, he directed the Neuro-Ophthalmology section of the Lancaster Course in Ophthalmology, which is the oldest and largest educational course that is designed for residents-in-training.
Hady El-Saheb, MD, MPH is currently Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Resident Research at McGill University. He is also a Consultant on the Ophthalmic Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Dr El-Saheb earned his medical degree and completed his residency at McGill University. He was then a glaucoma fellow at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, which is the #1 Eye Institute in the United States and subsequently completed a second fellowship in Novel Glaucoma Surgical Devices and Complex Anterior Segment Surgery with Dr Ike Ahmed at the University of Toronto. He also completed a Masters in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, with an interest in Clinical Trials and Health Leadership. Dr El-Saheb has received several awards, published peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and spoken at multiple national and international meetings.
Throughout his residency, he won multiple awards for academic excellence and research presentations, and was selected by his co-residents for the McGill Residency Leadership Award. He also served on the Board of Directors for the McGill University Health Center and continues to contribute to McGill University through teaching and administrative responsibilities.
Most importantly, Dr El-Saheb is much appreciated by his patients who he empathically cares for in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. He is specialized in glaucoma diagnosis, treatment and surgery, complex anterior segment surgery and cataract surgery. He is passionate about angle closure glaucoma, micro-invasive glaucoma surgery, optic nerve imaging and complex cataracts.
Steven R. Sarkisian Jr., MD is the director of the glaucoma fellowship at the Dean McGee Eye Institute and serves as a clinical professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Sarkisian received his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College, in Illinois where he graduated with honors. Following college, Dr. Sarkisian did graduate work at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Remaining in Philadelphia, he received his MD degree from Jefferson Medical College followed by an internship at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Dr. Sarkisian completed an ophthalmology residency at the State University of New York Health Science Center (SUNY Downstate) in Brooklyn, New York and did a fellowship in glaucoma at the Hamilton Eye Institute at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, following which he was asked to stay on the faculty where he served until July 2006. Dr. Sarkisian joined the faculty at the Dean McGee Eye Institute in August 2006.
Dr. Sarkisian has a special interest in minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) combined with cataract surgery, and he was the first surgeon in Oklahoma (and the second in the United States) to perform the CyPass glaucoma implant since its FDA approval. He was also the first in the state to perform surgery with the iStent, the first MIGS device to receive FDA approval in 2012. He published a book about MIGS entitled, Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery, a Practical Guide. Dr. Sarkisian speaks both nationally and internationally about MIGS and went on a mission teaching surgeons in Ethiopia how to perform the CyPass glaucoma implant and has been a part of several other missions performing MIGS outside the US.
Due to his involvement in the development of new glaucoma technology, he has been active in presenting and publishing his work both in America and internationally. He also was nominated by the American Glaucoma Society (AGS) to be a consultant to the FDA Ophthalmic Device Panel, where he has served since 2009.
Dr. Sarkisian currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and also on the Editorial Board of Glaucoma Today. He is also an editorial reviewer for numerous ophthalmology journals. His professional service also currently includes membership on the glaucoma program committee for both the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) and formerly on that of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). He has served as a moderator and speaker at the annual meetings of the AGS, ASCRS, European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the World Glaucoma Congress, the World Ophthalmology Congress and the AAO. He also is the Program Chairman for the University of Oklahoma Department of Ophthalmology Annual Ophthalmology Symposium.
Joel Schuman, MD, whose pioneering work has led to significant advances in the detection and treatment of glaucoma, is the chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at NYU Langone Medical Center.
A National Institutes of Health-funded researcher, Dr. Schuman and his colleagues were the first to discover a molecular marker for glaucoma, a disease that damages the eye’s optic nerve and can result in irreversible vision loss. The discovery has paved the way for advances in the detection and treatment. To aid in early detection, Dr. Schuman was a member of the team that developed a groundbreaking medical imaging procedure that creates a 3-D map of the eye, called optical coherence tomography (OCT). This quick and non-invasive procedure allows ophthalmologists to measure the thickness of the retina and better diagnose retinal diseases. Dr. Schuman and coworkers continue to improve this technology which has revolutionized research and treatment in the field.
“I thought it was one of the MOST WONDERFUL meetings in the world! GREAT information, lots of fun and learning and GREAT attendees.” – Kathleen Digre, Salt Lake City, Utah
“Covers clinically significant subjects, nice group size, good facility, and of course, NOLA.” anonymous, 2016 Symposium
“Excellent conference with three areas of interest, updates and new technologies discussed, 20 hours of CME credit.” -anonymous, 2016 Symposium
“Overall, one of the best meetings as far as content and speakers, a very good learning environment.” -anonymous, 2016 Symposium
“Quality of lectures, ability to personally interact with the experts” – anonymous, 2016 Symposium
“Another phenomenal meeting sponsored by the NOAO!!” – anonymous attendee, 2015 Symposium
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