Over a decade ago, in Vientiane with the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, I was examining patients with a small group of Southeast Asian ophthalmologists from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar. A middle-aged lady came in with a dense vitritis, and I could see through the haze with an indirect ophthalmoscope to an active macula-threatening toxoplasmosis lesion in the posterior pole. We started reviewing antibiotics available in that part of the world, and to help the discussion, I sent out to the bus where we had stashed a box of latest-edition Wills Eye Manuals. As we paged through the book’s section on toxoplasmosis, I became aware of a flurry of hushed whispers in the room, and looked up questioningly at my interpreter to find out what all the fuss was about. “It’s your book,” he explained, “Everyone is excited to see it. Once they saw a Xeroxed copy of it in Bangkok.”How proud I was to tell the thrilled group that we had an actual copy of the The Wills Eye Manual for each of them, brought all the way from Philadelphia! Their palpable delight was a special reciprocal gift.That pride finds its echo today as I peruse this new edition of what has become a standard work in the Eye Canon, the best-selling book in our field worldwide, compiled originally from a sheaf of famously helpful notes assembled by two Wills residents, Chris Rapuano and Marc Friedberg. That remarkable pocket compendium, shared with their fellow trainees for reference as they worked in the clinics and emergency room, grew into the first manual, published in 1990. Thirty years later, it retains its immediacy and clinical relevance, despite many iterations and changes, most recently to adapt it to online access including expanded video resources – and of course the reason for this is that it is still authored by Wills residents, who know what frontline patient care demands: ready, conveniently available, concise, accurate, and up-to-date information!This foreword would not be complete without a grateful acknowledgement of the two giants no longer with us, whose editorial skills anchored the book for its previous three decades: Dr. William Tasman and Dr. Edward Jaeger. Peerless and indefatigable proofreaders and advisors, their mentorship and support have been key to the success and reach of the manual. May this new edition of The Wills Eye Manual serve as a special salute not only to the Wills Residency that these tremendous academicians served so ably, but also to the legacy of their irreplaceable editorial pen, wise counsel, clinical acumen, and unmatchable collegiality.

Julia A. Haller MD

Ophthalmologist-in-Chief

Wills Eye Hospital