Out of the Blindspot

In the last episode of the podcast, we heard from several attendees of the 2025 NANOS meeting in Tucson, Arizona. One meeting session in particular resonated with many attendees, sparking, deep, personal reflections on their approach to this important topic. Co-created and co-led by Drs. Melissa Ko and Guy Jirawuthiworavong,  the sessions was titled The Science and Clinical Practice of Supporting Patients Through Vision Loss: Therapy When There is No Cure.

This unique symposium tackled a question nearly every physician has faced: what to do when you’ve done all you can to heal, but can do no more?

Today, we’re taking a deep dive into an important conversation—one that helps put things into perspective and challenges us to think beyond tests, prescriptions, and procedures, and remember the full person behind the patient. 

Dr. Melissa Ko

Dr. Guy Jirawuthiworavong

Dr. Agnes Wong

Dr. Benzi Kluger

The International Neuropalliative Care Society

Palliative Care to support the needs of Adults with Neurological Disease

Clinical Guidance in Neuropalliative Care  - A position statement from the Americal Academy of Neurology

The NANOS 2025 annual meeting in Tucson Arizona was as informative, exciting, fun, and impactful as ever. 

In this episode, I bring you a unique taste of the meeting through a conversation with a wonderful neuro-ophthalmologist and through reflections of meeting attendees from Tucson during the event.

In the first part, I speak with Dr. Susan Mollan who is a world-renowned Neuro-ophthalmologist practicing in Birmingham, England. Her group is at the forefront of IIH research and we spoke about her background and interests in Neuro-ophthalmology, the latest in IIH and GLP-1 agonists, her reflections on the NANOS meeting, and more.

In the second part of the episode we hear from a diverse group of meeting attendees about their favorite highlights and experiences from NANOS, a new and fun event debuting at this year’s meeting, and an impactful symposium we’ll hear more about in future podcast episodes.

The IIH Intervention Leadership Group

NANOS 2025 Resources

In the last episode, we began a conversation with Dr. Howard Krauss, founding partner of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Southern California and a pioneering surgical Neuro-ophthalmologist.

In this episode, we continue our conversation, learning more about his experience training to become a surgical Neuro-ophthalmologist, his experience as a co-founder of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, and r. Krauss offers some of his thoughts on the current state of our healthcare system, and sage advice to the next generation of aspiring physicians and Neuro-ophthalmologists.

Dr. Krauss is a pioneering surgical Neuro-ophthalmologist specializing in minimally invasive orbital and oculoplastic surgery and adult strabismus.  A leader in ophthalmology and medicine,  he has blazed the trail for many of us who followed his footsteps into this specialty as surgeons. In this episode, we’ll learn about his formative years including his journey from rocket scientist to Neuro-ophthalmologist.

Dr. Howard Krauss

In this episode, I’m honored to bring you my conversation with Dr. Lenworth Johnson, a true pioneer in neuro-ophthalmology. As one of the first African American neuro-ophthalmologists, Dr. Johnson paved the way for future generations, breaking barriers and making an indelible mark on our field. 

Beyond his significant clinical expertise and technical contributions to ophthalmology, Dr. Johnson is also a historian of our profession. His book, Breaking the Color Line in Medicine: African Americans in Ophthalmology, is the definitive account of the African American experience in our field, chronicling the challenges, triumphs, and the ongoing endeavors to increase representation in ophthalmology.

Dr. Johnson’s storytelling is as compelling as his insights, and in this episode, we explore his remarkable journey, the importance of representation in medicine, and the future of our field through his unique perspective.

Dr. Lenworth Johnson

Dr. Howard P. Venable

Dr. Maurice Rabb

Breaking the Color Line in Medicine: African Americans in Ophthalmology

Black Pioneers in Ophthalmology

Rabb Venable Excellence in Ophthalmology Program

The National Medical Association Ophthalmology Section

Today on the podcast, I have Drs. Alexandra "Ola" Pietraskiewicz and Amy Durand, two young physicians who are at the cusp of beginning what will hopefully be long and fulfilling careers in neuro-ophthalmology. We’ll hear what motivated them to pursue careers in our field, help break some of the common myths that dissuade many trainees from considering neuro-ophthalmology as a viable career choice, and we’ll hear some sage advice about the mindset that can help overcome apprehension about choosing a career in Neuro-ophthalmology.

Dr. Alexandra "Ola" Pietraskiewicz

Dr. Amy Durand

With overall relatively low exposure to and recruitment of trainees to the field of neuro-ophthalmology, I feel that we as a specialty must be able address the misconceptions about who we are and what we do by telling our own stories. We need to spread the message more widely about how great our specialty is and how much of a positive impact we can have on our patients, colleagues, and communities by the specialized care and expertise we are able to offer to our patients and communities. 

This has been the main goal of this podcast, which started with an episode featuring an invited talk to the ophthalmology student interest group at McGovern medical school. This episode is a rebroadcast of that conversation in which I exposed medical students to our field and addressed some of the misconceptions about neuro-ophthalmology to their young impressionable minds. 

In the previous episode, I began a conversation with Drs. John Chen, Fiona Costello, and Heather Moss, about the 50th anniversary NANOS meeting.  In this episode, we continue our conversation about what’s new and exciting in NO and how to take the momentum from the meeting and use it to grow more practical interest in our specialty.

NANOS 2024

John J. Chen M.D., PH.D

Fiona Costello, M.D, FRCPC

Heather Moss, M.D., PH.D

The 50th Anniversary NANOS Annual Meeting was held in Honolulu, HI from March 2 through March 7 2024. it was a wonderful meeting that has been claimed  by many to be of the best annual meetings ever with respect to location, venue, content, organization, and atmosphere. It was one of the the largest NANOS meetings ever, drawing a diverse, international audience from all over the globe. The meeting covered a wide range of neuro-ophthalmologic content including cutting edge research, and some of the latest in diagnostic and treatment paradigms in our specialty. Today, we begin a series of episodes in which I speak with world renowned neuro-ophthalmologists Drs. John Chen, Fiona Costello, and Heather Moss, about the 50th anniversary NANOS meeting. Each played an important role in the meeting and its success and we had a wonderful conversation about their experiences in Hawaii, the new and cutting edge topics that came out of the meeting, and how to take the momentum from the excitement of the meeting and use it to grow the specialty of neuro-ophthalmology.

NANOS 2024

John J. Chen M.D., PH.D

Fiona Costello, M.D, FRCPC

Heather Moss, M.D., PH.D

The young Neuro-ophthalmologists committee of NANOS or YONO was established in 2012 in an effort to meet the needs of trainees and neuro-ophthalmologists in their formative years of training and practice. The YONO committee is currently co-chaired by Drs. Nailyn Rasool and Andrew Melson who are passionate about the support and mentorship of those early in their neuro-ophthalmology journeys. In this episode of OOTBS I'll speak with them about the importance of YONO and the wonderful resources it provides, and how to YOLO as a YONO.

NANOS YONO Portal

Dr. Nailyn Rasool

Dr. Andrew Melson