PAAO President’s Message

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together is success.”

      – Henry Ford

Today I would like to report to you the very productive Executive Committee meeting that was organized by our administrative office this past Saturday. We had in attendance Teresa Bradshaw & Terri Grassi, Carol Karp, Camila Ventura, Valentina Franco and Angela Fernandez, Peter McDonnell, Fernando Arevalo, Pablo Daponte, Lihteh Wu, Eduardo Mayorga, Eduardo Viteri, Paulo Dantas and Paul Chan. After every single report, the discussions were very meaningful and very helpful to delineate the strategic planning of the PAAO moving forward.

Teresa gave an excellent presentation regarding our budget in this very difficult and extraordinary year. Thanks to the hard work of the members of our Administrative office, in particular Teresa and Terri, the closing of the Arlington office and the transition to working from home, we are maintaining our financial stability. The discount membership programs were very successful to maintain stable membership numbers.

Lihteh Wu presented the dates for PARD (July 10 & 17, anterior & posterior segment, respectively) and certainly it will be a great success.

Fernando Arevalo spoke about our virtual Lo Mejor de la AAO, which is on its way to repeat last year’s great success.

Carol Karp presented the PAAO BPEI meeting which has been postponed to 2022 and the organization is impeccable. We are looking forward to a great in-person PAAO BPEI meeting in Miami.

Pablo Daponte updated us on the PAAO 2023 Buenos Aires meeting which will take place at La Rural and the dates are March 17-20, 2023. We are looking forward to a great PAAO CAO in-person meeting there.

The eLearning Committee, led by Eduardo Mayorga & Eduardo Viteri, is working tirelessly, particularly in these extraordinary times, with a great number of virtual initiatives.

Camila Ventura and Valentina Franco presented the great initiatives of the PAAO-YO which has grown exponentially.

Paulo Dantas reported on the amazing growth of The Pan-American Journal of Ophthalmology since it became an online journal. It is amazing how fast our journal has advanced.

As you can all see, besides our regular Monday night executive team meetings, to see our wonderful friends and colleagues at the Executive Committee at large, was a privilege and a pleasure. The new ideas and the meaningful discussions stimulates even more our desire to serve with hearts and brains, our much loved PAAO.

Please stay safe and well.

With best wishes,

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