Glaucoma Patient Summit

COluwatosin Smith, MD (Glaucoma Specialist at Glaucoma Associates of Texas):

The Glaucoma Patient Summit is a very unique meeting. I think if you are able to put somebody in a position where they have understanding and they’re empowered in that kind of way, that is priceless. As a physician, I am super excited to talk to my patients about this summit. And even some of the patients found it hard to believe that there is such a thing as this being put together for them, for their sake, to be enriched in this kind of way. So I tell them, “This is your summit. This is your opportunity to come and learn, to come and do better, to come and learn more, to come and hear what’s in the future of the disease that you have to live with every day.” And it’s a full day, maybe a day and a half or a day and a evening, to come and actually enrich yourself.

Supporting the Glaucoma Research Foundation for me is being able to support the education of my patients through their website and through their material. Supporting the Glaucoma Research Foundation for me also means supporting programs like the Patient Summit, that then allows patient to go there and be empowered because they learn advocacy, they learn about disease, they learn about low vision options, they meet with a community of people, they learn about industry, they learn all these things that I’m not able to provide. But most of all, supporting Glaucoma Research Foundation for me, is about the work that they do because they are a research foundation. They’re the people who come up with some research projects that I’m always so excited about, especially because of the collaborative nature of these projects. The Catalyst for a Cure for me is one of my favorite things just because of the way it’s set up. We all want a cure for our patients. We want a time where there will be a cure no matter what benchmark we set as the definition of a cure. And so I’m excited to support the Glaucoma Research Foundation for all the many things that it does outside of what I can provide as a physician for my patients, and the possibility that the research that they will do will one day provide that cure that we all look forward to.

End transcript.