100 years of American Academy of Optometry

The American Academy of Optometry (AAO) is today the world's largest and most recognised scientific organization in optometry. Founded in 1922 in St. Louis, the AAO celebrated the 100th birthday in San Diego, USA, from 26 to 29 October 2022 with almost 9000 participants. A central message from the AAO Anniversary Congress was that scientific and clinical research for the entire field of eye and vision care and their implementation into clinical practice is essential for both eye care professions and the population. This was already demonstrated on the first day of the congress in the plenary session with the theme "Today's Research, Tomorrow's Practice", which was attended by several thousand participants. Moderated by new AAO President Susan Cotter, the also new director of the National Eye Institute ophthalmologist Michael Chang and optometrists Karla Zadnik and Donald Mutti presented different topic-related lectures. The importance of training future scientists, promoting collaboration between different disciplines in the field of Eye Care, but also the previously mentioned faster translation of research results into clinical practice became clear in the following discussion. The fact that scientific cooperation between optometry and ophthalmology is possible was demonstrated again this year by a symposium that has been jointly organised for many years by the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) with speakers from both professions - this year on the topic of "keratoconus". Also chaired by speakers from the fields of optometry and ophthalmology was the session "Grand Rounds: anterior segment of the eye from the optometrist's and ophthalmologist's perspective", at which optometrist Blair Lonsberg and ophthalmologist Mike Greenwood discussed current treatment options from optometry and ophthalmology perspective.

Scientific and clinical research in the overall field of eye and vision care are the driving force for even better care for our patients. A look at the research activities in the field of current and future gene therapies for various diseases of the retina and cornea shows the great potential benefit for the patients concerned. At the AAO meeting in San Diego, optometrists Sherry Bass and Jerome Sherman from the State University New York, College of Optometry demonstrated in an impressive way that genetic testing makes perfect sense for hereditary eye diseases. Optometry & Contact Lenses (OCL) is committed to provide clinicians and researchers from optometry and ophthalmology with a high-level platform to present new evidence-based research in the field of eye and vision care to a broad international audience.

In this spirit, I wish all readers and authors continued enjoyment of the OCL and all the best for the New Year 2023.