Fernando's Story
The Power of the Pan-American NetworkBeing involved with the Pan-American has undoubtedly changed my life. In 1992, I was a resident in Caracas, Venezuela, and I became a PAAO member-in-training. That same year, I entered the PAAO’s Select Free Paper Contest. The prize winners would travel to Sevilla, Spain, to attend the “V Centenary of the Discovery of America” that was jointly organized by the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology, the Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology and the Pan-American Association. I submitted “Retinal manifestations of AIDS” and I was one of the winners of the contest! I presented my paper in Sevilla and later this topic became the basis for my first book.
Since then, my heart has belonged to the Pan-American. This first international opportunity that the PAAO gave me inspired an academic trajectory with achievements I could have never imagined. I have had international training opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to me. There is no doubt that the PAAO changed the course of my life and my goal is to create similar opportunities for new generations of young ophthalmologists and residents. I would like to extend to all in the Pan-American community these opportunities of education, professional development, and leadership.
Change your Trajectory
J. Fernando Arevalo Colina, M.D.
PAAO President
J. Fernando Arevalo, M.D., F.A.C.S., is chairman of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and the Edmund F. and Virginia Ball Professor of Ophthalmology, specializing in vitreoretinal diseases. A gifted surgeon, he has performed more than 6000 retinal detachment operations. He also teaches and conducts clinical research that has led to advances in the treatment of complex retinal detachments, vitreo-retinal complications of refractive surgery, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (combination therapy and anti-angiogenics).