Dear Friends & Colleagues,
 
2020 has been a tough year for most of us, mostly due to the challenges arising from coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting ourselves to the new normal. We have experienced lockdowns and many social distancing measures that we have not imagined before. A physical meeting that can bring us together again is basically impossible even towards the end of the year. While we can’t stay close physically, the distance can’t stop us from having fruitful academic exchange. As part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asia Pacific Tele-Ophthalmology Society has been conducting monthly webinars since June 2020 and we are taking it further to organize our annual meeting online with free registration for all participants.
 
Featuring top-notch speakers from Korea and around the world, APTOS 2020 will showcase clinical applications of artificial intelligence in telemedicine and the role tele-ophthalmology plays in reaching the unreached and in difficult circumstances in which the physicians and the patients are miles apart. We have not imagined we can be working from home for so long that people start to talk about having a virtual office. By the same token, while we can’t imagine having a virtual clinic right now, we can be sure that technology will keep advancing and one day, it will become a new normal for all of us.
 
Last but not least, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our co-hosts, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Yonsei University and Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, for their efforts in making APTOS 2020 online a reality.
 
We look forward to seeing you online.
 
Yours sincerely,

Mingguang HE
APTOS President