“Hawaiian” Eyes, Hearts & Souls: 15 People Setting 2025 Right, from the Start

What better way is there to kick off a new year in the eye industry than being in Kauai in January??

I’d be hard pressed to say.?

But if you really pressed hard, I’d say skiing in Nagano, Japan, followed by hiking the Na Pali Coast in Kauai, all in the same day on January 17, was epic.

I do get a little aggressive sometimes in the way that I put my eyes to good use, but isn’t that what our field is all about??

Indeed, raising quality of life (which for me is an adventurous one) through eye care seems to be one of our industry’s main missions.?

And while I haven’t hit presbyopia just yet, our field is full of refractive options, from RLE to laser blended vision.?

We heard a lot about those during the Hawaiian Eye & Retina 2025 Meeting in Kauai in January, but more important to me was the experience of being there with ophthalmologists and industry, living their best lives and leading by example.

I caught up with a number here.

Topics ranged from the medical and scientific to keeping mentally and physically fit. Let’s dive in, though maybe not from that cliff we all saw from the beach near the Grand Hyatt…

I was so glad to see Oliver Findl come over stateside, especially since Hawaii is the farthest state from Austria.?

The ESCRS leadership continues to make efforts to engage the Americas, and it’s impressive to see the footprint.?

With ESCRS unquestionably now a global show, the attraction worldwide to attend has never been higher. Still, engagement matters, as we on Team Media MICE know, making the trek from Vietnam.?

Oliver also presented on pseudophakic RD in myopes, referencing the MYOPRED Study, which involves the influence of posterior vitreous detachment on retinal detachment after lens surgery in myopic eyes.?

“In general a myopic eye has a significantly higher retinal detachment risk than a normal emmetropic eye,” he told EuroTimes in this elucidating video not long ago.

“Younger patients in their 40s and 50s have a significantly higher risk of getting a retinal detachment. Those who have not had a PVD yet when they come to lens surgery… they typically get their PVD very soon thereafter,” he noted in the video with EuroTimes editor Sean Henahan .?

Surprisingly, on my flight from Honolulu back to Tokyo, I met former Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole – who at one point led Windows client business and is now a venture investor on the way to India – and this giant of a businessman was laid flat out, face down, for at least a week postoperatively due to PVD.?

“I ended the year with a narrow miss in losing vision in my right eye, and as of week 1 January, I’m still not out of the woods, with a second less invasive surgical recovery in the process. To make a long story short, I had my third posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in late October, which led to a partial retinal detachment likely at the same time, but not diagnosed by two different specialists until I saw a third the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Nov 26th),” Will wrote in his family blog, which he shared with me. “The detachment was not caused by my mountain biking or anything I did other than being fathered by someone with similar issues that he inherited as well. If you are very nearsighted (which you can determine by a negative number in your distance vision correction in your glasses or contacts being between -3.5 to -6) or extremely nearsighted (greater than -6), and/or you have a family history of retinal issues, please pay attention. PVDs are quite common in people over 50 who are modestly nearsighted.”

So as Will found and Oliver has noted, PVD can be quite concerning. And as Oliver noted to me after stand-up paddleboarding on the Danube in Vienna last summer, my own risk of retinal detachment as a myope – should I consider RLE after hitting presbyopia – is not small. These are warnings I shall heed.

Jeannette Bankes (SVP, President, Global Franchises at Alcon), also is a mutual friend of Oliver, and she mentioned there are a bunch of product launches coming up from Alcon this year.?

I followed up with Sean Clark (President, Global Surgical Franchise), about that on LinkedIn. Here’s what he mentioned:?

“Hey Matt. Yes, we have a ton going on this year from a new product standpoint,” Sean said. “The first one is the new Voyager DSLT unit for the treatment of glaucoma. The biggest one will be the new UNITY VCS combination vit/phaco platform. The combo unit will launch first and then we look to bring out a phaco-only version near the end of the year. We have FDA approval already on the new platform. The other will be the new PanOptix Pro IOL (again already approved by the FDA). We will also [have] innovation launching on the WaveLight platform on the refractive side.? And lastly, we have new innovation coming on the digital front.? It's going to be a big year for Alcon Surgical for sure.? Let me know if you want to connect more on these.”

Great tips, Jeanette and Sean. Looking forward to linking up soon to hear more.

John Sheppard , president of Virginia Eye Consultants and professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School , is one of my earliest mentors in the eye care space, and I still keep a letter of recommendation for a Unite for Sight fellowship handy he wrote on Dec 15, 2009, anytime I’m feeling down.?

While it may give you a clue as to who I am, it’s even more telling about what a gem the author is.

“Matt is one of the most read authors in all of ophthalmology. His prolific approach to virtually every sub-specialty allows him a broad perspective from pharmaceuticals to surgery to business to politics in medicine. He has the directness, succinctness, humility and intellect to inspire confidence in strangers as well as friends. He immediately creates trust and respect through his very straightforward yet gentle approach to tasks and problems. I have no reservations about his abilities or sincere intentions. He has never missed an appointment, gets the subject matter right, seeks the appropriate advice, holds a timely interview and always appears to have every article ready by deadline. What more can you ask of a journalist?”

Well, what more you can ask for is to return your jacket given to you by your former commanding officer, which you left at my booth at AAO, John. I was happy to do so via FedEx.?

Thanks for being a friend for life.

I don’t know that many people publicly link the two, but Dr. Elizabeth Yeu, MD also hails from Virginia Eye Consultants and is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Because Liz already is so well known as Immediate Past-President, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) (2023-24).

But on some level, we must have both been mentored by John.

Nowadays, we are more than thrilled at Media MICE to be collaborating with Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , where Liz was appointed Chief Medical Officer last October. What will she be doing there, you ask?

“In this new role, she will be responsible for leading the strategy, direction and execution of the Company’s new Medical Organization comprising the medical affairs and pharmacovigilance teams, including evidence generation, medical education and oversight of patient safety,” a Tarsus Pharmaceuticals news release noted.?

“Liz has been an invaluable partner and advisor to Tarsus, and we are thrilled to apply her medical expertise and leadership directly to enhancing the impact of our medical organization as we continue to propel the XDEMVY launch,” said Tarsus CEO and Chairman, Dr. Bobak Azamian, MD, PhD .?

XDEMVY helps target and eliminate the Demodex mites that cause Demodex blepharitis (DB).

David Karcher was honored at Hawaiian Eye & Retina 2025 Meeting with the Lindstrom Leadership Award and Lecture. According to the Nominator’s Remarks on the Healio Meetings app, David was honored because:

“David was the executive director of ASCRS for 38 years,” it was noted. “American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery was essentially ophthalmology’s first surgical sub-specialty society and under David’s leadership, the organization grew in size, scope, stature and global influence. David wore multiple hats throughout his tenure: CEO, lobbyist, negotiator, strategist, manager, motivator, innovator and international ambassador. Today, most countries have their own national cataract and refractive surgery society modeled after ASCRS, and in many cases founded with the help and initial support of ASCRS. He was the right leader at the right time, and through ASCRS, David helped generations of anterior segment surgeons and their patients.”?

I had my own thoughts about David here, based on our working relationship more than 20 years ago.

博士伦 continues to operate under Bausch Health, although a potential sale had been explored – which so far has not occurred.?

A company update was provided on February 6 here.

The company certainly seems to be making a string of their own strong acquisitions, including of Elios Vision – a MIGS device maker – last December, and of Trukera Medical – targeting the dry eye space – last July.?

Meanwhile, I had a great hike with Andrew Stewart , President of Global Pharmaceuticals and International Consumer at Hawaiian Eye & Retina.?

More on that here:

Back to Alcon, I sat in on a symposium exploring the Phase 3 Pivotal Trial Results for Acoltremon Ophthalmic Solution 0.003%, which is about a novel drug candidate for dry eye.?

According to Alcon, “Acoltremon, a topical agonist of transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8), is a first-in-class product candidate for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease.”

Translation: there appears to be a lot of excitement around this investigational neuromodulation drug for dry eye.?

After all, what could natural tear production do for the dry eye space? I’m intrigued!

All the best to Lisa Praeger (General Manager, Pharmaceutical and Dry Eye at Alcon), and the entire team, in their quest to advance acoltremon down the line.

DJMJ continued to make some wild rounds at Hawaiian Eye & Retina. After dropping his first single alongside AAO Chicago at PRYSM nightclub, I learned he’s working on more material.?

His single #IDID with Alexia LaSaint pulses with energy.?

And yet he still manages to ophthalmologize, shall we say.?

He spoke on Optimizing the Surgical Experience for Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery/RLE at the meeting.

And, he spoke on the enVista Envy, which are full range of vision IOLs.?

During a presentation, he noted the lens changes patients' visual experience in daily life activities. For example, in a clinical study of 110 patients, 95% had little or no difficulty reading a computer screen, 91% had little or no difficulty reading a mobile screen and 94% had little or no difficulty viewing close objects.?

When it comes to Mitch Jackson ’s talents, there’s certainly a lot to envy…

Karl Stonecipher was a key source of mine in the early 2000s on all issues ocular.?

Our interviews have pivoted from simply the written, to dynamic videos with Media MICE. You can see more of that here, and fortunately Karl is a great sport when it comes to media opportunities.?

Karl also presented on A Bird’s Eye View of DED Inflammatory Pathways, a talk presented by AbbVie Medical Affairs + Health Impact.?

It’s always good seeing him!

Dagny Zhu, M.D. always socially brilliant, recorded live a podcast with Healio at the show: a Mend the Gap podcast on equity in medicine. It’s a podcast that “explores disparities in health care and seeks to move the needle towards equity.”?

She also spoke on the pros and cons of bilateral same-day surgery.?

It was also great to reconnect after our trip to UKISCRS in London late last year.?

Ending at a London conference during the Christmas holidays, and starting the New Year right at a conference in Hawaii: I’d say we’ve got a great conference itinerary going, Dagny, to keep inspired while sharing positive vision journeys.?

All the best, soon from Winter ESCRS in Athens, Greece.?

Cathleen McCabe shared some “tricks I learned in challenging international settings” in a show symposium. Cathy, who is an Advisory Board Member of CAKE Magazine , always is one for surprises.?

I also was touched by a thoughtful interaction at the show.?

As we were talking during a cocktail reception, I mentioned some recent inner meditative work I was doing, along with a specific type I had read about here, called open-monitoring, in this fascinating article called How Medication Deconstructs Your Mind.?

“‘Open-monitoring’? practices help us get untangled from focusing on any particular thing happening in the mind, opening the aperture of our attention to notice the wider field of awareness that all those thoughts, feelings and ideas all arise and fall within,” the article notes.?

Cathy mentioned she finds longer forms of meditation challenging, and suggested she appreciated touching base, based on maintaining positive energy in one’s life.?

We all certainly appreciate Cathy for all she’s doing for ophthalmology as one of the top KOLs, and it’s nice to know she also can appreciate various contributions of the rest of the industry. We, after all, are all stakeholders in the world of sight and quality of life.?

During our booth visit to STAAR Surgical , Rob and I had the fortune to run into Jaimie Morgan , who is an avid whale watcher. She invited us on a whale watching tour, which sounded innocuous enough.?

It turns out, it went out along the Na Pali Coast, in winter.?

Here’s my post about that:?

?A big thanks to Jaimie for an experience of a lifetime. Now I don’t need to go to Alaska for whale watching anymore, but I crazy want to!

STAAR, meanwhile, makes premium visual experiences possible for patients the world over, thanks to the Visian ICL.

Here’s a little more about what they are currently doing, based on a video we created.

I. Paul Singh shared a personal news update with me at the show.

“I ended up having a cardiac bypass 8 weeks ago,” he said. “It did allow me to reevaluate life in general – what are we here for, what is my goal, why am I doing what I’m doing. For me it allowed me to appreciate how much I love what we do, how much I love the interaction that we have with our colleagues with industry, going to these meetings, but also how important it is to take time for your family, and take time to make those right decisions – of when do we do more focus on work, and when do we focus more on family. Finding that equilibrium that works best for you – that isn’t easy and I’m still figuring it out – but it was definitely a good time to reevaluate and decompress as well.”

Hats off to Paul, who clearly made the most out of a significant life event, and we look forward to hearing all his wise glaucoma and other insights for many years to come.?

My colleague Rob Anderson and I met Deepak Sambhara in and around the show, and we had a really awesome vibe.?

It turned out, there’s a reason. We are all married to (or getting married to, in Rob Anderson’s case) Vietnamese women.?

In fact, Deepak and his wife Ann came out with us on a hike to explore the topic of work-life balance in a MICE TV hike and interview. We’re looking forward to releasing this imminently.?

Meanwhile, Deepak also spoke at the conference on Rapid and Sustained Fluid Control with Aflibercept 8 mg in Patients with Neovascular AMD by Baseline CRT and BCVA: A 96-week PULSAR Phase 3 Trial Post-hoc Analysis.?

“Aflibercept 8 mg vs 2 mg achieved resilient fluid control through Week 96 with extended dosing and fewer injections in a substantial portion of treatment-naive patients with nAMD,” he concluded. “In a matched dosing analysis, 14-23% higher fluid resolution was observed with aflibercept 8 mg vs 2 mg 8 weeks after each active matched injection, starting from the third injection.”

Dr. William Trattler, MD , on our Medical Advisory Board of CAKE Magazine, introduced his cousin to me: Zachary Cohen , director of IPD Analytics .?

According to its website, “IPD Analytics identifies, projects and quantifies the impact of competitive-landscape shifts in the pharmaceutical and biologic market to offer: Industry-leading drug life-cycle analysis; clinical, formulary, procurement, and inventory-control insights for payers, providers, and suppliers; brand and generic market impact forecasts; [and] pharmaceutical coding and reimbursement information.”

From what I understand, for example, IPD Analytics provides analytics on expiring patents for business intelligence purposes.?

Once a patent expires, the technology becomes part of the public domain, and competing companies may use it without licensing or royalties. Hence, tracking these expiring patents can help access new opportunities, and more.?

Zachary was immersing himself into the ophthalmic landscape, and we wish him all the best.?

All in all, Brandon Winkeler , Robert Anderson and myself certainly enjoyed Kauai and our Na Pali Coast hike. We vowed to make Hawaiian Eye & Retina part of our yearly 1st-conference tradition from now on, as it’s a great way to plan for the year with our friends, and start the New Year right in nature.

All the best, m’eye friends, and see you this month in another exquisite world location: at Winter ESCRS in Athens, Greece!