International Collaborative Studies in Ophthalmology

Ron Adelman, MD, MPH, MBA, FARVO, Professor and Vice Chair, and Director of the Retina Center, at the ophthalmology department at Yale School of Medicine presented a multifaceted seminar that spanned 3 topics including retinal embolism, age-related macular degeneration and efforts made through an international collaborative study to analyze clinical data generated by clinician as a proxy for a clinical trial. In his first presentation Dr. Adelman showed how retinal embolisms are cleared out of the blood vessels within hours after occurring. In his second presentation he summarized the clinical trial data from two recent drugs that were approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. In his third presentation he presented how analyzing data from procedural outcomes throughout the world, can be used as a proxy of a clinical trial to decide which procedure is better for a certain condition when multiple different approaches are feasible. His presentations were inspiring to the many medical students who attended the seminar and are interested in ophthalmology as a future profession. The in-person attendance was the highest yet since the pandemic and the new venue was well liked by the many attendees. The organizers would also like to thank Heidelberg Engineering for supporting our Vision Seminar Series, allowing us to invite prominent speakers like Dr. Adelman.