On April 15th, 2023, medical students at the University of Ottawa hosted their annual virtual ophthalmology conference – EyeExplore. EyeExplore featured various talks and workshops with the goal of exposing medical students to ophthalmology basics and highlighting research in the area.
The first keynote speaker was Dr. Solin Saleh. Dr. Saleh is a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, as well as the Department of Opthahlmology’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead. Her talk “A Week in the Life of a Pediatric Ophthalmologist” focused on her typical weekly schedule and common pediatric ophthalmology cases she sees.
First Talk Key Takeaways:
- As a pediatric ophthalmologist, you can have a diverse practice, seeing pediatric and adult comprehensive cases.
- Practice gratitude daily: “Gratitude is the best attitude”.
- Work-life balance can be diffi'cult: reserving time for academic/administrative work such as charting, billing, emails, research and lecture preparation is essential. Putting this time into a scheduled block can help keep weekends for hobbies and family time.
- Do not expect to come out of residency or fellowship with complete knowledge of everything in ophthalmology. It is fine to not know some things and refer to your textbooks – we are life-long learners.
- The most challenging part of ophthalmology is seeing tough cases, such as a child with complete vision loss. Resilience develops gradually. • One of the best pediatrics ophthalmology resources for residency is the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) Pediatrics Ophthalmology and Strabismus textbook. For more detailed learning, especially during fellowship, EyeWiki.org and Taylor and Hoyt’s Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus textbook are great resources.
Dr. Saleh’s talk was followed by a second talk, “The Spirit of Kaizen in Ophthalmology,” given by Dr. Kashif Baig. Dr. Baig is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Principal Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Medical Director at Precision Cornea Centre as well as the Herzig Eye Institute Ottawa. He talked about his daily life as a surgeon at Herzig Eye Institute and the role of technology in ophthalmology.
Second Talk Key Takeaways:
- Technology is booming in ophthalmology. There are several new, promising ophthalmic technologies (e.g., Beyeonics One™ and SeeLuma™) that will improve the quality of care and facilitate surgeries as well as teaching for ophthalmologists.
- To keep up with new technologies and research, ophthalmologists and their care team should attend conferences, engage in meaningful discussions, and continue to read up-on new technologies and methods that they could implement in their practice.
- Dr. Baig mentioned that: Choosing A Medical Specialty by Brian S. Freeman, and How To Choose A Medical Specialty by Anita D. Taylor are books that can help you better decide which specialty is for you.
- He also recommended three books for future practice management by John B. Pinto: The Inner Game of Ophthalmic Practice Success, Ophthalmic Leadership: A practical Guide for Physicians, Administrators, and Teams, and John Pinto’s Little Green Book of Ophthalmology: Strategies, Tips and Pearls to Help You Grow and Manage a Practice of Distinction.
These two insightful talks were followed by eight research presentations given by medical students from five different Canadian medical schools, including three COSIG members!
- “Glimmers of Light: Recent Advances in Retinal Prostheses” by Mina Mina from University of Calgary
- “The Association between Socioeconomic Factors and Vision Difficulty in the National Health Interview Survey: A Cross-Sectional, Population-Based Analysis” by Lana Moayad from McMaster University.
- “NAD+ and Niacin Supplementation as Possible Treatments for Glaucoma and Age-Related Macular Degeneration” by Mario Bassi from Queen’s University.
- “A Systematic Review on the Patient Reported Outcome Measures in Clinical Practice Guidelines published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology” by Mohamed Gemae from Queen’s University.
- “Risk of Ocular Adverse Events with Aromatase Inhibitors” by Aswen Sriranganathan from University of Ottawa. •
- “Comparison of IOL Power Prediction Formulas in Pediatric Cataract Surgery” by Ninglu Weng from University of Manitoba. •
- “Accessible Beginners Ophthalmology Exposure: The Virtual Introductory Summer Course in Ophthalmology (VISCO)” by Sloane Kowal from Queen’s University.
- “Complication rates in cataract surgery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Nathan Lee-Wing from University of Manitoba.
In the afternoon, three interactive workshops in smaller groups covered important ophthalmology topics with clinical cases for medical students:
- Workshop 1: Clinical Skills In Ophthalmology – Dr. Jim Denstedt, PGY-3 ophthalmology resident at the University of Ottawa.
- Workshop 2: Back To Basics; The 101-Crash Course on Common Ophthalmic Presentations – Dr. Selya Amrani, PGY-2 ophthalmology resident at Queen’s University.
- Workshop 3: Ocular Emergencies – Dr. Daisy Liu, PGY-3 ophthalmology resident at the University of Alberta.
Special thanks to everyone who was involved in the organization of EyeExplore 2023: Nadine Cheffi, Yonathan Agung, Deion D’Souza, Eileen Kim, Jacob Stasso, Jo-Ann Khoury, Praneet Gill, Elger Baraku, Partha Patel, and Tara Gholamian.
Author: Mehrshad Hanafimosalman (M1, McGill University)
