University of Toronto held their virtual CaRMS Ophthalmology Open House on December 15, 2021. The session was hosted by Dr. Sherif El-Defrawy (Chief), Dr. John Lloyd (Program Director), Dr. Amandeep Rai (Associate Program Director), as well as a handful of residents including Dr. Eli Kisilevsky, Dr. Jason Kwok, Dr. Sonia Anchouche, Dr. Yogesh Patodia, Dr. Jovi Wong, and Dr. Michael Nguyen. After an enthusiastic and informative presentation about the program and its many highlights, students were divided into breakout rooms allowing a more intimate atmosphere for personal questions.
Here are some takeaways from the event:
- A unique aspect of PGY-1 is a 1-week elective to learn ophthalmic pathology, and a 5-week elective that can be used for research or subspecialty exposure.
- PGY-2 is mainly spent around the emergency clinic and 6 months of general clinical rotations divided across Toronto’s many hospitals (St. Michael’s, Sunnybrook, Toronto Western, Mount Sinai). The residents were excited about the chance to learn and independently perform many procedures such as retinopexies, chalazion surgery, and much more.
- In addition to subspeciality exposure through vertical subspecialty blocks, PGY-3s also have a half day per week of protected research time. This continues in PGY-4, when residents also do a quality improvement project
- Another appreciated highlight of the program is the longitudinal cataract experience in PGY-4 (1 year, 1-2 ORs/week) and PGY-5 (3 months, 2 -3 ORs/week). Residents from their current PGY-5 year were able to graduate with an average of 900 complete cataract cases. PGY-5s also have the chance to do tubes, trabs, and MIGS as part of their 3-month glaucoma experience.
- There are many elective opportunities through the residency years: 6 weeks in PGY-1, 4 weeks (optional) in PGY-4, and 8 weeks (flexible) in PGY-5. The electives can be in the community (Eye Van, GTA) or international (ORBIS, Costa Rica, Uganda, etc).
- There are various teaching opportunities, and some are optional (OKAP review sessions, ocular oncology teaching, etc.), providing residents with flexibility. There are also monthly journal clubs and surgical wet labs.
- In addition to supervision from prolific faculty members, residents have access to funded conferences such as Sally Letson, Lancaster, COS, and AAO.
- Toronto is a vibrant multicultural city with endless social and cultural events. The department also offers many social events such as summer gatherings, December holiday parties, TORIC socials, resident retreats, and more.
If you have any questions, please reach out to the residents @toronto.ophthalmology on Instagram!
Authors: Daiana Roxana Pur, Stuti Misty Tanya, Anne Xuan-Lan Nguyen, Amirthan Sothivannan
(Image Source: Daily Hive)
