PAAO President’s Message

Miguel N. Burnier Jr. MD PhD
PAAO President, 2019-2022

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”

– Leonardo Da Vinci

I have just returned from the American Academy of Ophthalmology as one of the first in-person meetings in a long time. The AAO annual meeting was held in New Orleans, as well as virtually for many members around the world. It was nice to see familiar masked faces amongst the crowd during the conference and in the exhibitor hall.

During my time there, I was able to attend the AAO 2021 President’s Reception and it was such a pleasure to speak to all my great friends. The reception was a great success and a wonderful opportunity to safely meet our colleagues and to discuss new advances in ophthalmological research. Our colleagues are all optimistic that we are heading in the right direction with vaccination, safety measures and a gradual return to our usual activities.

In addition, this past weekend, I also participated at the PAAO’s 2021 Lo Mejor de la Academia en Español. It was an absolute pleasure to welcome everyone along with Fernando Arevalo. We had an excellent virtual attendance, reviewing the interesting presentations from AAO. We had a wide range of presentation topics and panels of invited Ophthalmologists. This event gives us a great chance to actively participate and discuss the latest events, diseases and discoveries with our colleagues. It was almost as good as seeing each other in person. As I mentioned in my first paragraph, this was a meeting of a great learning experience.

I believe we are on a slow, gradual and safe path to carefully return to what is considered acceptable during our current times. We are slowly getting back to in-person meetings and keeping up with our virtual ones to stay connected and plan for more personal events. I also took the opportunity this past weekend to remind everyone of the PAAO/Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Curso (October 16-19, 2022) and our Buenos Aires PAAO Congress (March 17-20, 2023) which are both coming up. We are well on our way and must continue to stay positive, stay safe and as always, to show empathy and compassion to others.

Please be safe and well.

With best wishes,

Miguel N. Burnier Jr., MD, MSc, PhD, FRCSC
PAAO President