Charles D. Kelman Innovator’s Lecture
The Stony Way of Development of a Clinical Procedure – Collagen Cross Linking
Theo Seiler, MD, PhD, Zurich Switzerland
Monday, April 7, 2008
Innovator’s Session, 10:00 am
McCormick Center West, Chicago IL
The Charles D. Kelman Innovator’s Lecture
Each year the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery honors an individual whose innovative ideas have benefited ophthalmologists and their patients. Dr. Seiler's extensive research and innovations in ophthalmic surgery have earned him this award.
Abstract
Clinical therapeutic or diagnostic techniques need 3 phases of development:
(1) Preclinical experiments, (2) pilot study and (3) prospective studies. Using cross linking of the cornea as an example the 3 phases are described in detail.
The preclinical studies (1996-2003) included the realization of the idea, laboratory work and animal trials. In this phase, the treatment parameters as well as the efficacy of the procedure were optimised. The pilot study was commenced in 1999 and was published in 2003- In this study, the clinical feasibility was proven. It took another 2 years until patients were enrolled in multicenter prospective studies which are still underway.
Aside from the temporal and logic evolution of the clinical procedure the difficulties regarding motivation of co-workers, acceptance of new ideas and regulatory affairs will be discussed.
Theo Seiler
Dr. Seiler teaches General Ophthalmology and is specialist in corneal and refractive therapy, physiologic optics, lasers in ophthalmology, and anterior segment surgery. He was born in Ravensburg, Southern Germany in 1949. He studied medicine, mathematics, and physics at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1976, he because a professor of physics at the Peter-Silbermann College in Berlin. He began his residency at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Free University of Berlin in 1981, where he was rose to senior assistant and lecturer in 1985 and became a professor of ophthalmology in 1990. In 1993, Dr. Seiler became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, at Technische Universität of Dresden, which is a unique interdisciplinary center focusing on research and teaching. In 2000, Dr. Seiler assumed his current position as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
Among his many awards areBinkhorst Award (American Academy of Ophthalmology), 1994; the Barraquer Award (American Academy of Ophthalmology) 1995; the Graefe Award (Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft), 1996; and the Honor Award (American Academy of Ophthalmology), 1997.
