If your interests are not easily defined by just one section, consider these cross-sectional platform sessions.

(all times shown are MT)

Monday, May 5
3 - 4:45pm

Integrated care in older adults with vision impairment: Needs and challenges (LV)

Speaker(s): Walter Wittich; Natalie Phillips; M Kathy Pichora-Fuller; Ruth M.A. van Nispen; Pradeep Ramulu; Lisa Keay

Description:
Over the last century, there has been great progress in life expectancy worldwide and older people make up a larger part of the world’s population than before. This proportion will rise rapidly in the coming decades. Although actions at all levels of society are vital to foster healthy ageing, realigning health systems towards building and maintaining the intrinsic capacity of older adults has been identified as an immediate priority. Losses of intrinsic capacity in older age are characterized by the manifestation of common problems, such as difficulties with hearing, seeing, memory, walking at usual pace, continence and positive affect. Yet, most healthcare professionals currently lack guidance or training to recognize and manage declines in physical and mental capacities in older adults. It may be possible to prevent or delay the onset of losses in intrinsic capacity through an integrated approach to modifying a set of predisposing factors. Delivering research evidence that is relevant to the needs of older adults and the health and social care systems that care for them requires a full-spectrum approach from discovery science to implementation. Advancing research at the intersection of ophthalmology and geriatrics can improve the health and quality of life of older adults with vision impairment. These efforts will allow for a better coordination of care for older adults with vision impairment as well as help identify a subset of older adults at risk of negative aging trajectories and develop tailored and cost-effective interventions for them. Also, a better understanding of the needs and challenges in the integrated care of older adults with vision impairment is important for eye care professionals and policy makers to help older adults maintain a good quality of life, allocate health resources, and conduct targeted interventions to promote healthy aging. In this symposium, the speakers from different specialties will present their latest research on the topic highlighting the importance and the challenges in the integrated care of older adults with vision impairment. 

Tuesday, May 6
1:15 - 3pm

Moving beyond association: Innovations in functional interpretation of genetic variants (GEN) 

Speaker(s): Kinga Bujakowsa; Mathieu Quinodoz; Tim Cherry; Benjamin Thomson; Alice Davidson

Description:
For a number of ocular diseases, the field of ophthalmic genetics has made significant progress in the identification of genetic variants associated with disease. Elucidating the functional consequence of genetic variants (and thus understanding the pathways that are affected) represents the next important milestone in order to fulfill the promise of human genetics as a catalyst to better pathophysiologic understanding and therapeutics. This session will describe methods to follow up on discovered genetic variation associated with disease, including non-coding regulatory, coding, splice-site, and copy number variants.