This year, the Charles D. Kelman, MD, Innovator’s Lecture was given by Damien Gatinel, MD, PhD.
Manjool Shah, MD, introduced Dr. Gatinel, who he said is known for his rigorous mathematical approach to solving problems in the field. Dr. Gatinel has pioneered new classification of optical aberrations and holds patents for diffractive trifocal IOL optics. Additionally, Dr. Gatinel has received numerous international awards and has published more than 220 peer-reviewed articles.
Dr. Gatinel’s lecture was titled “At Right Angles to Convention: Orthogonality and the Art of Breakthroughs.” Taking the stage, Dr. Gatinel likened presenting this lecture in Los Angeles to being at the Oscars.
Orthogonality here is “thinking differently,” he said, like what Charles Kelman, MD, brought to the field. He discussed Dr. Kelman’s contributions to ophthalmology, noting that breakthroughs can happen when we dare to step outside conventional boundaries.
Dr. Gatinel went on to discuss aberration profiles, noting applications for Zernike polynomials (while he added that these are great for many applications, they might not be the best set of functions clinically). He also discussed rewriting wavefront aberrations for ophthalmologists and alternative aberration models.
Source: ASCRS
Dr. Gatinel said he has been interested in becoming a doctor since he was young. Discussing why he liked emerging therapies and mathematics, he said, “When I was young, I needed something tangible. I was insecure, and mathematics was a truth that couldn’t be challenged when established.” Dr. Gatinel was also drawn to astronomy and photography. He noted that Dr. Kelman also loved both science and art.
Ophthalmology appealed to Dr. Gatinel because he could apply hard science and a clinical environment.
He went on to discuss some of his other interests in the field, including research on predicting postoperative theoretical asphericity, the volume of ablation, astigmatism correction, and more.
He spoke about IOLs and IOL design, highlighting the problem of finding IOLs to address intermediate vision and the challenge of this.
Dr. Gatinel was involved in developing the first diffractive trifocal IOL (FineVision IOL, PhysIOL). The original diffractive trifocal optic featured technology that was a combination of two diffractive profiles. The combination of two profiles offers the patient an intermediate vision without impairing near and distance visual acuities, and the concept was designed in order to reduce the loss of light energy that any diffractive system causes. This is still the leading trifocal in Europe and undergoing FDA trials in the U.S., he said.
Dr. Gatinel said he is interested in lens designs and the clinical impact on vision. We see profiles of various IOLs that have emerged, and some are very different, he said, showing maps of some of these IOL profiles. Today, we face the problem of IOL selection because we have so many to choose from, and it can be tricky.
Relevant disclosures
Gatinel: Alcon, BVI, Heidelberg Engineering, Oculus, Schwind, TearOptix
