Show Notes
Kevin Barber, MD, speaks with Cynthia Matossian, MD, and Sara O’Connor, MD, MPH, about strategies to address workforce shortages and training gaps in ophthalmic care. Dr. Matossian outlines the American College of Eye Technicians and its technician training model to expand career awareness and technical competency, and Dr. O’Connor describes ACE Global’s ophthalmic technician program in Honduras and a community health worker curriculum. Dr. Barber reviews distance surgical mentorship, a smartphone-to-microscope telementoring approach that supports ophthalmologists in low-resource settings as they transition to independent cataract surgery. Together, these initiatives illustrate a scalable, team-based pipeline to build capacity and reduce preventable blindness; related perspectives appear in CRST’s June 2025 “Bridging the Gap” issue. Related reading:
"A Workforce Solution to Expand Access to Eye Care"
"Scaling Surgical Mentorship Across Borders"
More from CRST: The Podcast
How should eye care providers approach patients with concurrent glaucoma and catracts? And when does cataract surgery alone fall short? In this episode of CRST: The Podcast, Anupam Laul, OD, FAAO, and Sahar Bedrood, MD, PhD, work through 3 real-world cases covering ocular hypertension with visually significant cataracts, primary open-angle glaucoma with rapid RNFL progression, and acute angle closure with a large crystalline lens. The discussion covers SLT timing, MIGS selection, sustained-release drug delivery, IOL choice in glaucoma patients, and when trabeculectomy remains the right call.
In this episode of Best Practices in Keratoconus Management, Bradon D. Ayres, MD is joined Parag Majmudar, MD, and Neel S. Vaidya, MD, MPH, to discuss their early experiences with Epioxa now that it is available for the treatment of progressive keratoconus. Discover how they are incorporating Epioxa into their practices, their initial treatment successes, and what they have learned from their initial wave of patients. They also explore how this new treatment option may influence their approach to crosslinking and help them take a more proactive approach to keratoconus management.
Neda Nikpoor, MD, and Neda Shamie, MD, are joined by Radhika Rampat, MBBS, BSc(Hons), FRCOphth, for an exploration of sustainability in ophthalmology. They discuss the AECOS Green Working Group, waste reduction, and how to champion sustainability locally.
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