Senior ophthalmology consultant at Elite Medical and Surgical Center in Riyadh Dr. Walid Al-Tuwairqi has become the first Saudi ophthalmologist to win a grand prize at this year’s ASCRS Film Festival.
He won the first-place award in the Cornea and Refractive Surgery category for his film “Combined lasik and small-aperture corneal inlay for the correction of presbyopia and ametropia.” This new surgical treatment helps patients in reading.
Dr. Al-Tuwairqi expressed pleasure for winning the prestigious scientific award, and he hoped it would be a catalyst for his Saudi colleagues to enhance their participation in these kind of competitions.
The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) organizes the festival annually, on the sidelines of the ASCRS Annual Symposium, which took place in San Francisco on Monday.
The ASCRS Film Festival, which is in its 32nd edition this year, is the biggest award ceremony in the ophthalmology specialization. It is equivalent to the Academy Awards “Oscars” in this field. Each year over 200 ophthalmologists from all over the world represent their latest techniques in ophthalmic surgery and practices in films and documentaries competing in ten categories. In this year’s festival, 180 films from more than 30 countries worldwide competed.
Specialized juries study the submitting films for three days then chose the first and second-place winners from each of the 10 categories. The major awards are presented at a large ceremony held during the annual symposium of ASCRS. The winners receive a trophy that resembles the Oscar.
First Saudi to win opthalmology ‘Oscar’ for eye surgery film
