AAO: American Academy of Ophthalmology

Leon W. Herndon Jr, MD, explains how disease severity, medication adherence, and pressure spikes shape surgical planning.

Ambient AI and analytics may ease clinical workloads and uncover insights, but safety, validated data, HIPAA compliance, and equity must guide adoption.

The meeting covered several topics in eye care, including how artificial intelligence (AI) can play a part in eye care.

Experts highlight AI adoption, sustained-release glaucoma therapies, and concerns about Medicare payment and rural access.

Those using e-cigarettes were more likely to develop cataracts, and those receiving cataract surgery less likely to develop depression and anxiety.

The conference session featured updates on several clinical trials, including the BRUNELLO trial, for treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

AI tools are streamlining retina practice, but adoption depends on fitting them into real-world workflows.

Cataract surgery improved vision across all AMD stages, but patients with advanced dry AMD lost their gains by about 30 months.

Panelists engaged in a debate regarding using complement inhibitors in geographic atrophy, gauging public sentiment with a deciding vote.

New 12-month phase 1/2 data show the BIM-IOL System lowered IOP and kept most patients drop-free after cataract surgery.

In the pivotal BRUNELLO trial, both doses of remigromig, a Wnt pathway agonist, were noninferior to ranibizumab for diabetic macular edema at 1 year.

A session at AAO 2026 highlighted how big data and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) could be utilized to help patients receive peak care.

Access to emergency eye care remains a public health challenge, with gaps that affect patients and communities across the country.

The opening session of AAO 2026 featured a keynote speech discussing how artificial intelligence (AI) will play a part in health care.

Cost, staffing, unbiased training data, and strong referral partnerships will decide whether AI eye screening reaches patients at highest risk of vision loss.

Incidence of diabetic macular edema and the need for glaucoma surgery were reduced after treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.

The director of the National Eye Institute discusses recent advances, AI, and evolving standards of care in ophthalmology.

The conference, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, will offer 3 full days of content spanning from glaucoma to dry eye.

A decline in eye care utilization was found in older patients, with significant differences based on age, race, and ethnicity.

The results of a study showing improved functional vision and retinal sensitivity have implications for gene therapy in ophthalmological conditions, explained Michel Michaelides, MD, FACP, a consultant ophthalmologist and a professor of ophthalmology at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology's Genetics Department.

At the American Academy of Ophthalmology's annual conference, Rona Z. Silkiss, MD, FACS, an oculoplastic surgeon and owner of Silkiss Eye Surgery, dived into how biologic therapies can be used to treat thyroid eye disease and what can be done to ensure patients have access to these treatments.

Michael N. Cohen, MD, a retinal surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital and Mid Atlantic Retina, describes the differences between wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and how gene therapy could help treat the condition in the future.

Results from the pivotal PHOTON and PULSAR trials highlighted the success of 8-mg aflibercept every 12 or 16 weeks in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

Richard C. Allen, MD, PhD, FACS, an oculoplastic surgeon at Texas Children's Hospital and a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, spoke on how oculoplastic surgery in pediatric patients has changed at the American Academy of Ophthalmology's 2022 conference.

During a lecture delivered at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting, James Madara, MD, CEO of the American Medical Association, discussed 3 areas in ophthalmology care that required innovation to effectively push care into the 21st century.

Posters presented at AAO 2022 found that family medicine doctors and artificial intelligence (AI) were able to screen patients for diabetic retinopathy (DR) effectively, although false negatives in AI need to be improved.

Posters presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology 2022 annual meeting show that the treat-and-extend (T&E) regimen was effective in managing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), which makes adherence to treatment vital for long-term outcomes.

Advances in imaging and data science are changing the nature of retina practice, and retina specialists need to stay on top of these, said Michael F. Chiang, MD, director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), who also discussed some of the current research the agency is conducting into artificial intelligence (AI) and telemedicine.

Gene therapy can be used to treat retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease, and there is likely to be an increase in approved gene therapies for ophthalmic conditions, explained Michel Michaelides, MD, FACP, a consultant ophthalmologist and a professor of ophthalmology at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology's Genetics Department.

The presentation focused on the Protocol AC trial, which considered whether step therapy had an impact on visual outcomes for patients starting on bevacizumab and switching to aflibercept later.