PAAO President’s Message
Dear Friends,
I remember how winning the Select Free Paper prize in 1992 changed my life. The winning prize was to present my paper at the Joint Spanish, Portuguese and PAAO Societies meeting in Sevilla, Spain. What an amazing experience. I wanted to recreate this same experience when I founded the Young Ophthalmologist Prize that will be presented for the first time in Cancun. And I’m thrilled that the Selection Committee has chosen Dr. Roberto Gallego-Pinazo from Spain.
Our Young Ophthalmologists are the future of our profession. We have established a PAAO-YO Committee that is co-chaired by Dr. Jorge Fortun of Miami and Dr. Camila Ventura from Recife, Brazil. They have assembled an excellent team of committee members from all over the world: Dr. Sandra Belalcazar (Colombia), Dr. Pedro Carricondo (Brazil), Dr. Juan Carlos Gines (Paraguay), and Dr. Bruna Ventura (Brazil). There are several YO events in which everyone is invited to participate.
The PAAO-YO Committee is organizing the 2nd PAAO Eye Ball Networking Event that is scheduled to take place at 8:30 pm on Sunday, May 26th. The ticket price is $40 per person. This event is not limited to young ophthalmologists. It’s open to everyone, even those who are young at heart! This networking opportunity is being sponsored by Zeiss. To buy tickets please go online at https://paao.org/eyeball2019/. Proceeds will go to the Mike Brennan Curso de Liderazgo Fund which provides scholarships to attend the PAAO’s Curso de Liderazgo / Leadership Development Course.
Johnson & Johnson Vision is sponsoring our first ever PAAO-YO Lounge in Cancun. It will be located on the first floor of the convention center. We will be featuring educational lectures and “Meet the Expert” sessions throughout the Pan-American Congress. We are excited for this new activity to encourage educational and cultural exchange for our Young Ophthalmologists.
The PAAO-YO Symposium is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 28 from 8 am to 9:30 am in Salon Costa Maya 5. This YO symposium will be featuring multi-discipline case studies. Please come and participate!
See you soon in Cancun!
Fernando Arévalo, MD PhD
PAAO President