Mehta’s milestone

The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS) conferred its highest accolade, the ASCRS Honored Guest Award on Dr Keiki Mehta, India’s first ophthalmic surgeon to receive this distinction. The award, which honors a luminary whose lifelong clinical and research work in the field has been exemplary and who has enhanced the cause of reducing blindness in the world, was presented at a glittering ceremony at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center before an audience of 15,000 ophthalmic surgeons from all over the world at the ASCRS Annual Symposium held from April 24 to 29, 2014 in Boston, USA, mentions an email received by Parsiana from Luciano Gomes.

Dr Eric Donnenfield presenting award to Dr Keiki Mehta

At the presentation ceremony ASCRS president Dr Eric Donnenfield lauded Mehta as a pioneer in cataract and refractive surgery and a prolific teacher who had earned the reputation of being the "Father of Indian Cataract Surgery” who had enhanced ophthalmology not only in India but internationally. Mehta, who is surgical chief and medical director of Mehta International Eye Institute in Bombay, developed the world’s first soft intraocular lens implant and a host of useful inventions over the years, mentions the email. He is invited to almost every live surgical ophthalmic workshop all over India to demonstrate and teach his latest and most innovative surgical skills and techniques, mentions Gomes’ email.