👀Thankyou for Dr Gerrit R.J. Melles for his amazing keynote lecture last night on “The Surgicube International BV -The Local, Flexible Alternative for Operating Room Sterility” – an invention which has the ability to redefine how we approach eye surgery (and other surgery) as an OR alternative.
💚As I sat there, listening to Professor SADEER B. HANNUSH, M.D. introduce our keynote lecturer, I realized that there are very few individuals in the world who can truly count themselves as renaissance men or women and Dr Gerrit Melles would have to be one of them.
👁️Known as the father of endothelial keratoplasty, Melles’ work opened up an entirely new field of surgery for corneal transplantations…. since then he has continued to refine EK as well as developing new surgical and eye banking techniques over the last three decades.
🥇Some of his achievements include:
– the development of specific surgical instruments and devices for performing corneal transplants
– pioneering the use of vital staining solutions such as Vision Blue® and Membrane Blue® for ophthalmic surgeries
– developing the Surgicube® for performing ophthalmic surgeries under sterile conditions in any clinical setting
🎹Not only this, but in his free time, Dr Melles indulges in his other love, his love of music – as an amateur composer he founded the Melles Classical Music Foundation (MCMF) which works on conjunction with the MCMF Orchestra, directed by Martin Haunhorst who is the Concert Master of an orchestra in Germany. Not only this, but Martin himself was a bilateral recipient of DMEK in the world renowned Melles Cornea Clinic in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The orchestra itself invites and encourages young talented musicians under the age of 21 to participate, gaining confidence, exposure and opportunities in which to flourish.
As a fellow (very) amateur musician myself, I remain ever inspired by this maintained connection with music.
✨So, thank you for taking time out of your ever busy schedule to teach and share your ideas with us on making the OR space much more accessible in various resource settings.
I can see this having a profound influence in low resource settings as well as potentially a defined space within our usual day to day operations and as always, an opportunity to challenge the way we approach things to keep us innovating.
Thankyou also to Professors Sadeer Hannush and Allan Slomovic for their stalwart support, Drs @Neera Singal, Stephan Ong Tone @songtone, @corneasseur Zeba A. Syed and @brentonfinkleamd for their panelist dynamism and of course to the two presenting fellows Dr Manokamna Agarwal and Dr Marisa Schoen for their excellent cornea surgical cases.
If you’d like to visit the series, you may wish to do so here:
https://ophthalmology.utoronto.ca/subspecialty-rounds