Palm Beach Medical Forum

First held in 1988, the Palm Beach Medical Forum is a popular Palm Beach tradition where Bascom Palmer’s physicians share the most recent vision research and medical highlights. “Bascom Palmer has been at the forefront of gene therapy for inherited retinal diseases, a viable option to restore sight, for more than a decade,“ said neuro-ophthalmologist Byron Lam, M.D., as he began the 2019 forum. He was joined by Audina Berrocal, M.D., a pediatric retinal surgeon, who performs gene therapy surgeries on children. She shared numerous stories of her young patients whose sight has been restored with these life-changing breakthroughs. Philip J. Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., a pioneer in the use of drugs to prevent blindness in neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, who is credited for saving vision in millions around the world, shared his research and latest findings on the dry form of the disease.