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Show NANOS NEWS Walsh and NANOS Meetings Are Successfully Engrafted Who was minding the neuro- ophthalmology concession in North American from February 9 to 14,2002? Good question, because over 270 neuro- ophthalmologists gathered during that time at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the first joint Frank B. Walsh ( 34th) and North American Neuro- Ophthalmology Society ( NANOS) ( 28th) Meetings. A year ago, NANOS members had voted to combine the two meetings so as to conserve on time and travel expenses. The Walsh meeting, organized by Lanning B. Kline, MD ( Birmingham, AL) and William F. Hoyt, MD ( San Francisco, CA), featured Peter C. Burger, MD ( Baltimore, MD), neuropathology, and Ann G. Osborn, MD ( Salt Lake City, UT), neuroradiology, as honored guests. Among the 20 " fascinomas" presented, several got past the audience, and a few even stumped the two experts. The organizers selected four teams of co- moderators, one member of each team having been the fellowship mentor of the other: Shirley H. Wray, MD ( Boston, MA) and David Kaufman, MD ( East Lansing, MI); Steven E. Feldon, MD ( Rochester, NY) and Deborah I. Friedman, MD ( Buffalo, NY); James J. Cor-bett, MD ( Jackson, MI) and Daniel E. Jacobson, MD ( Marshfield, WI); and William F. Hoyt, MD ( San Francisco, CA) and John B. Selhorst, MD ( St. Louis, MO). These pairings elicited maudlin expressions of gratitude from the former fellows and melodramatic bursts of pride from the former mentors. Some things were probably left unsaid. The Walsh meeting segued smoothly into the NANOS meeting, which included 31 platform presentations and 61 posters ( see NANOS Abstracts, pp XXX), two high- powered symposia, an expert panel discussion on clinical controversies, an educational skills transfer session on PowerPoint presentations ( Edmond J. Fitzgibbon, MD, Bethesda, MD), a practice management session on " making ends meet in academic neuro- ophthalmology" ( Richard H. Legge, MD, Omaha, NE), and a biostatistics seminar ( Laura J. Baker, MD, Philadelphia, PA). The two symposia occupied a half- day each. The first covered coagulopathies and vasculopathies, organized by Valerie Biousse, MD ( Atlanta, GA). It featured Marie- Germaine Bousser, MD ( Paris, France) and Louis R. Caplan, MD ( Boston, MA) as invited guests, as well as Mark L. Moster, MD ( Philadelphia, PA), Shirley H. Wray, MD ( Boston, MA), Judith E. A. Warner, MD ( Salt Lake City, UT), and Dr. Biousse herself as speakers. The second symposium, covering molecular genetics, was organized by guest Edwin M. Stone, MD, PhD ( Iowa City IA) and included John B. Kerrison, MD, PhD ( San Antonio, TX), Jeffrey L. Bennett, MD, PhD ( Denver, CO), David Lynch, MD, PhD ( Philadelphia, PA), and Dr. Stone himself as speakers. As part of his teaching, Dr. Stone challenged the audience to apply newly learned principles of molecular genetics to smoking out bogus manuscript abstracts. Larry Frohman, MD ( Newark, NJ) got the highest score and won the prize: a bottle of Chablis. At the closing banquet, Dr. Baker announced that the NANOS Board had approved the induction of the following new members: Valerie Biousse, MD ( Atlanta, GA), Mohan S. Chandran, MD ( Sandusky, OH), Steven Covici, MD ( Springfield, MA), Ramesh Gopalaswamy, MD ( St. Clair Shores, MI), Francis P. Grenn, MD ( Marshfield, MA), Adriana A. Kori, MD ( Bend, OR), Jeffrey W. Nichols, MD ( Chicago, IL), Lois A. Polatnick, MD ( Evanston, IL), Prem S. Subramanian, MD, PhD ( Silver Spring, MD), David I. Turok, MD ( Buffalo Grove, IL), and Cybele Woon, MD ( Columbus, TX). The following members were transformed into NANOS Fellows: Michael C. Brodsky, MD ( Little Rock, AK), Lynn K. Gordon, MD, PhD ( Los Angeles, CA), Steven R. Hamilton, MD, ( Seattle, WA), Sharon J. Johnstone, MD ( Phoenix, AZ), David F. Klink, DO ( Bethesda, MD), Anil D. Patel, MD ( Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Robert L. Tomsak, MD, PhD ( Cleveland, OH), and David A. Weinberg, MD ( Burlington, VT). Tulay Kansu, Ronald M. Burde, MD ( New York, NY) accepts the NANOS Distinguished Service Award. ^ 152. pOL10.1097/ 01. WNO, 0.0Q001826Q. 87375. § 2 . JNeuro- Ophthalmol. Vol. 22, No. 2,2Q02 , Copyright © Lip pincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction oftnis article is prohibited. NANOS NEWS J Neuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2002 Thomas J. Carlow, MD ( Alburquerque, NM), right, displays the plaque signifying his delivery of the first annual William F. Hoyt Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, New Orleans, LA, in October 2001. Guess who is pictured on the left? MD ( Ankara, Turkey) was approved as an International Fellow. The NANOS Distinguished Service Award was given to Ronald M. Burde, MD ( New York, NY). In presenting the award on behalf of the NANOS Board, Steven A. Newman, MD ( Charlottesville, VA) reminded the audience that Dr. Burde was a founder of the Neuro- ophthalmic Pathology Club ( which became the Walsh Society in 1979), the second editor ( after J. Tawton Smith, MD) of the Journal of Neuro- Ophthalmology ( 1994- 2001), a mentor to 36 neuro- ophthalmology fellows, and a role model for countless medical students and residents, including Dr. Newman himself. Given in recognition of pivotal contributions to NANOS, this award has been bestowed previously on six individuals: Thomas J. Carlow, MD ( Albuquerque, NM), Susan Carlow ( Albuquerque, NM), Robert B. Daroff, MD ( Cleveland, OH), Joel S. Glaser, MD ( Miami, FT), William F. Hoyt, MD ( San Francisco, CA), and David T. Knox, MD ( Baltimore, MD). Barrett J. Katz MD ( Washington, DC) announced that the first NANOS- sponsored annual William F. Hoyt Tecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting was given in 2001 by Thomas J. Carlow, MD ( Albuquerque, NM). According to Dr. Katz, Dr. Car-low was selected not only for his many scholarly contributions, but also for being the " driving force behind the NANOS." The Hoyt Tecture will be published annually in this journal. Dr. Carlow's lecture, " Ophthalmoplegic Migraine: Is It Really Migraine?" will appear in the September 2002 issue . The NANOS Young Investigator Award went to Valerie Biousse, MD ( Altlanta, GA). A native of Cauderan, France, Dr. Biousse originally contemplated a career in physical education, having trained with the French Military Equestrian School while also training in track, hurdles, and long jump. But " while jumping without the horse," she broke her leg, so she decided to go to medical school, a choice that has led to a stockpile of articles, book chapters, books, and presentations that would make an academic neuro- ophthalmologist 20 years older feel proud. She had decided early in medical school to become a cardiothoracic surgeon and " do lots of heart transplants and create a good artificial heart" until she met Marie- Germaine Bousser, MD ( now Professor of Neurology, and Chairman, Department of Neurology, Tariboisiere Hospital, Paris), who steered her toward neuro- ophthalmology. In 1996, Dr. Biousse left her position as staff neurologist at Hotel Dieu in Paris to do a 6- month fellowship in neuro- ophthalmology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, under the auspices of Nancy J. Newman, MD. Expecting to return to professorial duties in Paris, she was sidetracked by an offer of a faculty position in neuro- ophthalmology at Emory provided she would complete a residency in ophthalmology ( which she will do in June of this year). Dr. Biousse was pleased to discover that teaching has been an important component of her academic progress at Emory, whereas in France she describes teaching more as a " hobby" with no real contribution toward promotion. Valerie Biousse, MD ( Atlanta, GA), center, accepts the 2002 NANOS Young Investigator Award. John B. Selhorst, MD ( St. Louis, MO), outgoing NANOS Board chair, left; Neil R. Miller, MD ( Baltimore, MD), outgoing NANOS President, right. Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. JNeuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2002 NANOS NEWS Nicholas T. Monsul, MD ( Pittsburgh, PA), right, accepts 2002 NANOS Best Resident- Fellow Presentation Award from Neil R. Miller, MD ( Baltimore, MD). Meanwhile, between teaching responsibilities and residency in ophthalmology, she completed the research for which she is being honored this year. It flows from the strength of the molecular genetics program at Emory and specifically Douglas Wallace, PhD, who works exclusively on explicating mitochondrial diseases. Needing someone to look at the eyes of his mitochondrial disease model mice and characterize their phenotypic abnormalities, Dr. Wallace solicited the help of Drs. Newman and Biousse, who have now examined mice from three engineered mice models for evidence of mitochondrial disease with slit lamp biomicroscopy, electrophysiology ( ERG and VEP), and histology ( light microscopy and EM). These mice show multiple and varied disease manifestations, including congenital cataracts, optic nerve hamartomas, and decreased ERG amplitudes. The NANOS award for the best resident- fellow presentation at the Annual Meeting went to Nicholas T. Monsul, MD ( Pittsburgh, PA). After finishing his ophthalmology residency at Yale, he moved on to a neuro-ophthalmology fellowship at the Wilmer Institute with Neil Miller, MD. The research for which he is honored deals with axonal regeneration in the optic nerve, conducted under the mentorship of Drs. Paul Hoffman and John Griffin during a 5- month postdoctoral research fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His work involves injecting intraocular dibutyryl cyclic AMP into rats either directly before or after optic nerve axotomy and inspecting the nerves at 2 to 8 weeks later. He found that nerves from eyes so injected, before or after the injury, showed axonal regeneration, but control nerves did not. There is a mystical impulse to Dr. Monsul's research. When he was 12 years old, a close family member sustained a fall and was rendered paraplegic. He remembers being upset at the time that the spinal cord could not simply regenerate. Since then, he has been on a mission to try to change the remorseless prognosis of similar central nervous system events. He is currently completing an orbit/ oculoplastics fellowship under the direction of Kim-berly P. Cockerham, MD and John Kennerdell, MD ( Pittsburgh, PA). With these interests, why choose ophthalmology as a career? Because, Dr. Monsul says, " trying to understand the complexity of simply raising your hand is almost beyond comprehension, so if you are going to try to fix an incredibly complex system, chose the simplest part." At some point, he plans to get back to classic piano, a semiprofes-sional pursuit in earlier days, and mountain biking ( he now wears a helmet). Lyn A. Sedwick, MD Orlando, FL Jonathan D. Trobe, MD Ann Arbor, MI Accreditation of Fellowship Programs Gets a Deferment The idea of accrediting ophthalmology training programs has been placed on hold following a vote at the Robert L. Lesser, MD ( Waterbury, CT), Grace W. Kao, MD ( Orange, CA), and Robert M. MacFadzean, MD ( Glasgow, Scotland) in front of Dr. Kao's poster. ^ 154 „.. „ . . © 2002 Lippincott Williams & WUkins , Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. NANOS NEWS J Neuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2002 Grant T. Liu, MD ( Philadelphia, PA) points to something important to Eric R. Eggenberger, DO ( East Lansing, Ml). February 2002 meeting of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology ( AUPO). The AUPO supports the principle of assuring the quality of fellowship training by developing a process of accreditation with accountability, but does not support the current proposal before the American Medical Association's Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education ( ACGME). The AUPO will coordinate a task force to design an accreditation process, which will consider standard of education, protection of institutional training, public protection, and enforcement. The history of this issue goes something like this: In the early 1990s, several retina societies and NANOS unsuc- Preston C. Calvert, MD ( Alexandria, VA), Larry Frohman, MD ( Newark, NJ), center, and Mark Kupersmith ( New York, NY) confer at the poster session. Cheryl L. Zaret, MD ( Chicago, IL), Jon Currie, MD ( Westmead, Australia), Richard L. Sogg, MD ( Los Gatos, CA), and Michael C. Brodsky, MD ( Little Rock, AK) ( his back, but who else?) cluster around the posters. cessfully petitioned the American Board of Ophthalmology ( ABO) to issue ophthalmology subspecialty certifications. ( Specialty boards certify physicians as competent; the ACGME accredits training programs as meeting minimum quality standards.) The American Academy of Ophthalmology's ( AAO) Board of Councilors then considered the issue of seeking subspecialty accreditation and first voted against it in 1995 and 1996, and then in favor of it in 1997. As a result, the AAO directed the ABO to establish a Fellowship Accreditation Committee to direct ophthalmology subspecialty societies to draft fellowship accreditation requirements. NANOS members approved the accreditation guidelines for neuro- ophthalmology in 1999. Fellowship program accreditation by the ACGME has the attraction of assuring minimum quality uniform standards. This advantage is counterbalanced by the fact that fellows in accredited programs would have to be paid as house officers rather than as faculty members. Most hospitals would require that fellows be paid based on their years of medical training, namely at the postgraduate year ( PGY) 5 or 6 level. In the meantime, the Health Care Financing Administration 1996 capped expenditures for graduate medical education ( that means house officers), so that there would be no extra money to cover ophthalmology fellows in accredited programs. To add to the misery: if fellows were to be transformed from faculty members to house officers, they would no longer be able to bill for services, supervise house officers, or take faculty call. At the February 2002 AUPO meeting, ophthalmology program directors got a taste of the potential problems of fellowship accreditation from Steven Nestler, PhD, Executive Director of the ACGME's Residency Review Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. JNeuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2002 NANOS NEWS Mentor/ mentee pair ( originally University of Iowa) James J. Corbett, MD ( Jackson, MS), right, and Daniel M. Jacobson, MD ( Marshfield, Wl). Suzanne C. Berry, NANOS Administrative Director, left, with Thomas J. Carlow, MD ( Alburquerque, NM) at the poster session. Committee for Ophthalmology and Orthopedic Surgery, who reported the experience of orthopedic surgery, which achieved permission to accredit eight subspecialty programs in 1985. Only one program, hand surgery, has a certification process. Of 375 programs, 175 programs are accredited, most in academic institutions. The major points from Dr. Nestler's presentation were: 1) accreditation is a long process and that many orthopedic programs have not chosen to become accredited for a variety of reasons, and 2) the ACGME would not support accreditation for ophthal- Mentor/ mentee pair ( originally Michigan State University) David Kaufman, DO ( East Lansing, Ml), right, and Michael S. Vaphiades, DO ( Little Rock, AK). William F. Hoyt, MD ( San Francisco, CA) points out an interesting item on the poster of Grace W. Kao, MD, MPH ( Orange, CA). „ 156 . , „.. , „ . . © 2002 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins , Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. NANOS NEWS J Neuro- Ophthalmol, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2002 mology unless the majority of the subspecialty supports the process. The NANOS Accreditation Committee ( John L. Keltner, MD, Mark L. Moster, MD, Steve A. Newman, MD, and Ralph A. Sawyer, MD) rethought the pros and cons of neuro- ophthalmology fellowship accreditation, having polled NANOS fellowship directors and discovered that a majority could not afford accredited fellows. At the February 2002 AUPO meeting, most of the program directors in other ophthalmic subspecialties had come to the same conclusion and voted to find another way to accredit fellows that they could afford. The NANOS Accreditation Committee is looking into the feasibility of accrediting programs based on a NANOS ( rather than ACGME) monitoring system that would be based on NANOS- approved standards. The committee will be anxious to see what the AUPO develops. A report is expected at the next NANOS meeting at Snowbird, Utah, in February 2003. Stay tuned. John L. Keltner, MD Davis, CA Ralph A. Sawyer, MD North Potomac, MD Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. |