Every fall for the past many years, I have enjoyed participating in the OSN New York meeting. It brings the combination of good medical education, exposure to new developments in ophthalmology, spending time with colleagues and enjoying Manhattan during the beautiful fall season.
My Refractive Cataract Surgery section, even though it was moved to the less popular Sunday slot, was particularly good this year with the addition of new faculty members. John Ladas, MD, PhD, has done some groundbreaking work with IOL calculations using his Ladas Super Formula and Super Surface concepts. Albert Jun, MD, PhD, from the Wilmer Eye Institute at Hopkins brought a strong academic input to our panel discussions. Larry Berstein, MD, is in private practice in Long Island, N.Y., and he is the voice of reason and experience for our group. I?ve never met a more passionate and caring ophthalmologist than Larry. My go-to expert for anything corneal is Thomas ?TJ? John, MD, who gave a very detailed and educational talk about addressing the full spectrum of corneal disorders for cataract surgery patients. And Doug Koch, MD, whom I?ve admired as a mentor since I was a medical student 20 years ago, gave an informative update with regards to toric IOL selection. The group discussions were a great way for the audience members (and for me) to pick the brains of this esteemed panel.
Outside of the meeting, I even managed to spend a few hours with my sister, Lara Devgan, MD, who practices plastic surgery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She recently had a baby, and she?s now up to four sons all under the age of 4. With such a young and busy family, she works hard to maintain a balance between work and her home life, which I admire. And that?s when I realized that I need to rebalance my own priorities because my teenage kids will soon be off to college and I will miss them dearly. The OSN New York meeting is great and I?m sure it will continue for decades to come, but at this time, I need to step back and spend more time with my family. I?ve decided to take a few years off from the OSN New York meeting to do that, but I promise that in the future I will return again to regularly contribute to one of my favorite meetings of the year.