Message from the PAOF Chair

We have had very successful PAAO events including our PAAO Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina and our collaborations are larger than ever. The PAAO is more and more the organization that you want to belong to, if you want to NETWORK! However, PAAO is not only CONNECTIONS, it is a lot of EDUCATION!

We are immensely proud about the educational impact of our e-Learning program coordinated by Drs. Helena Filipe and Eduardo Viteri following the tradition of excellence started by Dr. Eduardo Mayorga. PAAO e-Learning includes the creation of an educational platform “CAMPUS PAAO” now part of the newly created “PAAO HUB OF SCIENCE”. We congratulate our president Dr. Paulo Dantas on this initiative. We envision that the PAAO HUB OF SCIENCE with Campus PAAO to become like a university for ophthalmology in the region online. Webinars, synchronous and asynchronous courses are currently dictated in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. The PAAO HUB OF SCIENCE also includes a link to the most important academic institutions worldwide. The number of attendees that benefit from these activities is increasing exponentially and we give opportunity to our professors (including our PAAO-YO) to reach our PAAO community.

The PAOF continues to work tirelessly and supports the PAAO membership, particularly our junior/early-career members via various grants/awards, and opportunities through our Travel Awards, and scholarships. We are in the process of creating more opportunities for you as we speak. We hope that PAAO members will generously support the Foundation (https://paao.org/paof/donate/) throughout the year. No gift is small, donate what you can. The more gifts donated, the more support the Foundation can provide to PAAO programs.

The future is great if we stick together as a Pan-American community! We are better, stronger and the goal is to meet again at our XXVII Pan-American Regional Course of Ophthalmology, March 14-18, 2024 in San Juan, Puerto Rico! XXXVI Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology, May 30-June 2, 2025 in Bogota, Colombia! It’s at these superb meetings where ophthalmology from all the Americas come together to meet and you cannot miss that!

Dr. Fernando Arévalo
PAOF President