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Ophthalmologists Choose Their Favorite Professional Meetings

Ophthalmology Management recently conducted a survey in which we asked ophthalmologists to answer questions about their attendance at professional meetings. We were particularly interested in which meetings ophthalmologists liked the most, and their reasons for favoring those meetings. As expected, general ophthalmologists tended to select the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting as their favorite, while cataract and refractive surgeons tended to name the ASCRS meeting as their number one event. The overall results, compiled from the 138 completed surveys, appear below.

Which best describes your personal practice focus?

General ophthalmologist 53.6%

Retina specialist 13.0%

Cataract surgeon 9.4%

Refractive surgeon 9.4%

Glaucoma specialist 2.9%

Other 11.6%

How many professional meetings do you attend a year?

One or two 42.8%

Two or three 28.3%

Three or four 15.9%

Four or five 8.0%

More than five 5.9%

In which part of the United States do you practice?

Northeast 28.3%

Southeast 18.8%

Midwest 23.2%

Southwest 14.5%

West 8.0%

Northwest 5.1%

How do you choose which meetings to attend?

Quality of information presented 74.6%

Meetings with varied content 29.0%

Depends what CME credits I need 23.9%

Meetings in my subspecialty 21.0%

Meetings in my geographic region 15.9%

Other 7.3%

Do you attend the same meetings every year?

Yes 56%

No 44%

Which meeting do you find the most worthwhile?

American Academy of Ophthalmology 46.4%

ASCRS 24.6%

American Society of Retina Specialists 5.8%

ARVO 2.9%

Royal Hawaiian Eye 2.2%

ESCRS 1.5%

American Glaucoma Society 1.5%

The Retina Society 0.7%

Other 11.6%

Why is this meeting the one you consider most worthwhile? (Sampling of comments)

"Everything is there." (ASCRS)

"Can get my CME credits, see colleagues and learn about new products." (AAO)

"Best variety of topics, exhibitors, social events and venues." (AAO)

"The most information in the least amount of time, in a meeting big enough to be really good and small enough to get around." (ASCRS)

"Most scientific; most relaxed; most information. A look into the future. (ARVO)

"Most coverage of retina topics." (American Society of Retina Specialists)

"Tremendous selection of topics and courses." (AAO)

"Best overall quality and quantity in cataract and refractive." (ASCRS)

"No FDA interference with worldwide input." (ESCRS)

"Good variety and quality with a nice location." (Royal Hawaiian Eye)

"There's more peer review before the lecturer gets to the podium, so I can better trust the material presented." (AAO)

About this data: Ophthalmology Management magazine recently sent the "Meeting Preference" survey via e-mail to 2,272 U.S. ophthalmologists who subscribe to the magazine and who also expressed an interest in providing feedback to the magazine. One hundred and thirty-eight completed surveys were returned and evaluated.