News

Bridging Discovery and Diagnosis: Where Immunology Meets Artificial Intelligence

The American Uveitis Society convened on May 2, 2026 for its Spring Meeting co-chaired by Thuy Doan, MD, PhD, and Lynn Hassman, MD, PhD, bringing together members from across the country to explore the intersection of immunology, clinical care, and emerging technologies. This year's program centered on the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence in uveitis research and practice, alongside continued advances in gene therapy and ocular inflammation. The meeting started with our plenary session speakers outlined below, followed by a free paper session.

The Robert B. Nussenblatt, MD, MPH Memorial Lecture

"Mechanisms and Modulation of Gene Therapy Associated Uveitis (GTAU)"

Delivered by Kathryn Pepple, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Division Director of Uveitis, and Director of Clinical Research at the University of Washington.

The Ronald E. Smith, MD Memorial Lecture

"Artificial Intelligence in Uveitis: Opportunities and Challenges"

Delivered by Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology, Chief of the Division of Artificial Medical Intelligence in Ophthalmology, and Director of Health Informatics at CCTSI, University of Colorado.

Meeting Highlights

Kathryn Pepple, MD, PhD delivers the Nussenblatt Memorial Lecture	Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD delivers the Smith Memorial Lecture
Thuy Doan, MD, PhD AUS, Spring Meeting Co-Chair, delivers the introduction	Dr. Naveen Karthik, MD, AUS Spring Meeting resident travel grant winner

Congratulations to Dr. Naveen Karthik on receiving the resident travel grant, and thank you to all members who attended and contributed to a successful meeting.

The American Uveitis Society is proud to announce the nomination and acceptance of John Gonzales, MD, Professor at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation at the University of California, San Francisco, to the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Leadership Development Program (LDP).

Since 1999, the LDP has cultivated leaders across ophthalmology. Its nearly 500 graduates have gone on to serve on Academy committees, lead state and subspecialty societies, and shape the direction of the field, including several who have become Academy presidents.

Dr. Gonzales joins this distinguished program carrying a project on behalf of the AUS UVEA Task Force: a mobile-first, resident-facing educational portal designed to help the next generation of ophthalmologists experience uveitis as approachable, learnable, and rewarding. The portal addresses head-on the misconceptions that have made uveitis feel inaccessible, that it is too complex, too nonsurgical, too narrow, or not professionally viable, by giving residents practical tools they can use on call, structured learning to master core material on rotation, and a clear window into what a career in uveitis can look like and how to pursue fellowship.

The vision of the UVEA Task Force is not simply to build an app, but to change the story residents hear about uveitis, and to give them the tools, examples, and mentorship that make the new story feel true.

We congratulate Dr. Gonzales on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to the impact this work will have on the future of our field.

In 2023, the AUS Executive Committee approved a task force to undertake the effort of adding medications to the Micromedex database for off-label use in ocular inflammatory diseases. This task force was led by Drs. Robert Swan and Bob Moorthy and we'd like to announce some important updates from their work:

Micromedex recently approved the following medications and off-label uses:

• Tocilizumab for adult uveitis
• Adalimumab for adult PUK
  
• Rituximab for adult scleritis
  

Data has also been submitted and is being considered by Micromedex for the following:

• Tocilizumab for pediatric uveitis
• Rituximab for OCP
  
• Infliximab for PUK
  

Many insurances use the Micromedex compendium to decide whether or not they will approve a medication for use in patients. This task force has been instrumental in expanding access to medications for our patients, as it also is a resource for finding primary literature supporting the drug's off-label use in certain conditions. We want to recognize the leaders and members of this task force for their important work in lowering barriers to help obtain effective treatment for our patients!

AUS Micromedex Task Force Members

Robert Swan, MD (co-chair)

Bob Moorthy, MD (co-chair)

Laura Kopplin, MD, PhD

Christopher Conrady, MD, PhD

Joan Lee, DO

Jennifer Cao, MD

Caroline Minkus, MD

Retinal Physician recently interviewed several co-founders of the Young Uveitis Specialists (YUS) to discuss the objectives of this recently established subgroup within AUS , focusing on their mission to support early career uveitis specialists. Read the full article here.

The American Uveitis Society today issued an official policy statement that uveitis fellowship interviews should be conducted in-person. The position statement can be found here.

We are excited to inform you that the AUS Micromedex Task Force headed by Drs. Robert Swan and Bob Moorthy, along with Drs. Jenn Cao, Joan Lee, Christopher Conrady, Caroline Minkus, and Laura Kopplin has successfully approached MicroMedex and provided peer-reviewed evidence strongly supporting the use of traditional immunomodulatory therapy and biologics in the treatment of non-infectious uveitis.  MicroMedex is an evidence-based, multi-database drug search engine that provides summary and in-depth information for drugs, diseases, toxicology and alternative medicine and is heavily utilized by insurance carriers to construct their tiered formularies and prior authorization policies. The AUS Micromedex Task Force asked for a desperately needed update and review of the existing database on steroid sparing IMT and biologics in uveitis management. After their independent review of submitted supporting documents and research,  MicroMedex has updated their adalimumab recommendations to include a new indication for Anterior Uveitis (adult and pediatric) and have also added once-weekly off-label dosing to both the adalimumab FDA indication along with the new Anterior Uveitis indication.  This should make adalimumab prior authorizations easier for anterior uveitis and also for escalation to weekly dosing.  Further reviews and database updates will likely follow in the next few months.