The 42nd Congress of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO 2027) is held from 18 to 21 March 2027 at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, under the theme "The Future of Ophthalmology". Congress President Prof. Tin Aung has placed particular emphasis on artificial intelligence in eye care, and the programme is built to examine not only the latest clinical advances but the global technologies and AI-enabled applications now reshaping the specialty.
APAO is a federation of 27 national and territorial ophthalmological societies together with 12 subspecialty societies, representing roughly 120,000 eye doctors — around 59 percent of the world's ophthalmologists — as APAO President Prof. Tetsuro Oshika notes in his welcome message. Its annual congress is consequently the largest ophthalmology meeting in the Asia-Pacific and one of the largest anywhere, routinely drawing many thousands of delegates from across Asia, Australasia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
The scientific programme spans every subspecialty: cataract and refractive surgery, cornea and ocular surface, glaucoma, medical and surgical retina, uveitis, neuro-ophthalmology, paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, oculoplastics and orbit, ocular oncology, myopia control and public health ophthalmology, and ophthalmic imaging and diagnostics. Instruction courses, video symposia, live surgery, subspecialty day sessions, free paper and poster sessions, and named lectures run in parallel across the four days, alongside one of the largest ophthalmic industry exhibitions in the region.
A distinctive feature of the 2027 edition is the deliberate widening of the audience beyond clinicians. The organisers have designed the programme to engage biomedical engineers, basic scientists, imaging specialists, data scientists and AI researchers alongside ophthalmologists, and have partnered with global technology, pharmaceutical and imaging companies to bring current development work into the sessions.
Singapore is a natural host: it combines a world-class eye research base with straightforward access from the Gulf and the wider region. Abstract submission, registration categories, the congress programme, awards and travel grant information, and accommodation guidance are published on the official APAO 2027 congress website.
