Part 1: KOL reflections on what they would say to retina fellows

Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sharon Fekrat, MD: Take advantage of opportunity. There is so much opportunity, really, in health care and medicine, and think outside the box. You never know when somebody you meet is going to be important to you going forward. Collaborate with industry, meet retina faculty at other programs, and really take advantage of opportunity. It's everywhere. In fact, there's little time to sleep.

Dilraj S. Grewal, MD, FASRS: First of all, congratulations; you have chosen a fantastic subspecialty and specialty, and I would encourage everybody to just be curious. You know, a lot of what we learn as we go along our clinical journey is from our patients, is from our peers, is from our mentors. So the curiosity as to what is driving certain things is really the hallmark of combining scientific, rigorous, meticulous testing with a clinical question. And it's really when you can merge an unmet clinical need with good science behind it that you get really revolutionary breakthrough products.

Priya S. Vakharia, MD, FASRS: So I think for the fellows out there, what I would encourage them to do is get really good at identifying geographic atrophy and learn about the different types of FDA-approved medications, learn about the things that are in clinical trials, and learn what may be on the horizon for your patients. I think that we have great FDA-approved medications. We have things on the horizon that potentially are even better. Obviously, these have to go through clinical trials, but I would just encourage you to stay on top of the literature so that your patients are abreast of the latest changes. This is a really rapidly evolving field and a really rapidly evolving part of retina, and it's really exciting to be a part of it.