The 2026 Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, Lecture at the ASCRS Annual Meeting will be given by David F. Chang, MD, past ASCRS president and Board member for 15 years. The Lecture will be held on the ASCRS Main Stage on April 12. A past chief medical editor of EyeWorld, Dr. Chang has been on the ASCRS Foundation Board since 2010, serving as chair or co-chair for 9 years.
Dr. Chang’s lecture will discuss what measures do and do not work to prevent ophthalmic surgical infection based on current evidence. He will review new studies supporting the efficacy of intracameral moxifloxacin prophylaxis, including a new randomized controlled trial and updated, real-world longitudinal data from the Aravind Eye Care System. Dr. Chang will also review and compare recent antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines from Europe and Asia-Pacific with practice patterns and guidelines in the U.S.
Source: ASCRS
Because of the extremely high volume of ophthalmic procedures … the scale of unnecessary expense and waste is enormous …
David F. Chang, MD
Many mandatory infection control protocols and regulations in the OR are not evidence based and may be unnecessary, Dr. Chang said. These policies include mandating single use of most surgical supplies, drugs, and devices, strict environmental safety protocols, and blanket application of general surgery protocols to eye surgery. Dr. Chang will review evidence that many surgical supplies and drugs can and are being safely reused and that ophthalmologists should have discretion over these decisions. “Because of the extremely high volume of ophthalmic procedures, such as cataract surgery, the scale of unnecessary expense and waste is enormous and is unsustainable as global surgical volumes continue to rise,” he said.
Requirements for cost-prohibitive randomized trials by the FDA mean that U.S. patients do not have access to commercially approved intraocular antibiotic solutions, he added. Dr. Chang will discuss how paradoxical regulations and policies ultimately harm the patient population that they purport to protect. He explained that the FDA requires irrefutable proof that intraocular antibiotics are efficacious to approve a commercial solution, while other regulatory agencies mandate unnecessary measures without which we cannot prove there to be zero risk. “Paradoxically, our regulatory agencies are saying that we can’t have an intraocular antibiotic to administer because there isn’t enough proof that it works, while continuing to mandate wasteful practices without any evidence that they are effective,” he said.
Dr. Chang’s insights come from more than two decades of research collaboration with Aravind and from his extensive experience representing ASCRS and AAO with multiple regulatory agencies and policymakers. His leadership roles include chairing the ASCRS Cataract Clinical Committee, the AAO Cataract Preferred Practice Pattern Panel, the multisociety Ophthalmic Instrument Cleaning and Sterilization Task Force, and EyeSustain, which he co-founded. EyeSustain is a global coalition of 55 member societies committed to advancing sustainability in ophthalmology through education, research, innovation, and advocacy. As chair of the EyeSustain Advisory Board, Dr. Chang led efforts to align ASCRS, ESCRS, AAO, and EURETINA as the four co-sponsoring organizations. EyeSustain has served as a global platform for societies and individual ophthalmologists to learn from, collaborate with, and educate others about sustainable eyecare delivery and surgery. Last year, Dr. Chang received the EnergEYES Award from the AAO Young Ophthalmologist Committee to recognize his leadership roles in sustainability and global ophthalmology and his ability to inspire younger ophthalmologists to pursue these important volunteer efforts.
