UPDATE: Cataract and Refractive Surgery Fellowship, Cleveland Eye Clinic/Clear Choice Custom LASIK

[CECFellow2018]

Hey Everyone,

Our fellowship will be sending out final invites this month. Nov 7 and Nov 15 Interview Dates.
APPLY NOW if interested.

Having now operated for 8 full weeks I wanted to add my personal surgical numbers and experience.

The fellowship has increasingly been the best choice I've made for my career. This week, I was the 2nd surgeon in Ohio to implant a Hydrus stent (MIGS) and I reached a personal record of 15 phaco in one morning from start to finish.

Current Fellow 2018/2019. All PRIMARY. Secondary not listed.

Phaco 155 (over 50 used 4D stereo heads up display INGENUITY)
Yag Cap 36
Yag Vit strand 1
ORA 1
MiLoop 1
ECP 1
Hydrus Stent 2

LASIK 122
Intralase flaps 40
Visumax flaps 141
PRK 7
PRK enhancement of LASIK 10
KAMRA corneal inlay 1
PTK 2
CXL 18

SLT 3
Chalazion 1

Certified:
Visumax Flaps
Intralase Flaps

Certification in process:
ICL
SMILE
Allegretto Excimer
Nidek Excimer

Research Involvement
5 Active personal Projects
SubPI with Light Adjustable Lens*

Conferences
- Attended Millenial Live 2018
Will attend:
AAO
ASCRS

BELOW IS FROM ORIGINAL POST

Hello Anterior Segment/Cornea/Refractive surgery applicants! Please feel free to PM me with any questions.

I want to take a moment to tell you all about an amazing 1-year cataract and refractive surgery fellowship opportunity based out of Cleveland, OH. Cleveland Eye Clinic and Clear Choice Custom LASIK Center is accepting applications on SFMatch.

I am the current fellow and wanted to make sure you were all aware of what an exceptional experience this has already been. Last year, I was torn between getting a job or pursuing fellowship. I went on the cornea interview trail and ultimately felt there were few programs that met the requirements I was looking for. I was extremely lucky to learn about this fellowship through a SDN post and hope I can help some of you out there shape your future. I'm humbled every day that these docs let me work with them and their amazing team.

This is an ideal fellowship for someone interested in long-lasting career in anterior segment surgery with a strong interest in cataract, refractive (LASIK, PRK, SMILE, ICL, KAMRA, Intacs, Cross Linking, CK), MIGS, efficient private practice, and cutting edge research opportunities with exposure to new products/platforms and industry.

The directors are Dr Bill Wiley and Dr Shamik Bafna (Cornea) who are both renowned in Refractive surgery. You will work with both closely but also they set you up with the fund of knowledge necessary to have and run your own private practice in the future.

The clinics are incredibly efficient due to a great EMR and fantastic support staff. There are opportunities to teach residents at Case Western University and the local VA Hospitals.

This fellowship is a "hybrid" fellowship that is not associated with a medical school or academic institution. Research opportunities are abundant and the attendings are incredibly active in literature and societies.

We are at the forefront of refractive technology, being the first practice in the state of Ohio to start doing the SMILE, KAMRA, and Raindrop procedures. We have over 5 clinical trials currently operating including new technologies like light adjustable IOLs. We work the Visumax and Intralase femtosecond laser + Visx, Allegretto, and Nidek Excimer lasers! We treat many routine and complex anterior segment pathology with a variety or lasers and MIGS procedures. This fellowship is designed to train the next future leader in the field.

Here are the primary surgical numbers from last years fellow.

Phacos – 1027
· LASIK - 704
· PRK - 102
· SMILE - 15
· Visumax Flap - 659
· Intralase Flap – 346
· KAMRA Inlay - 30
· PTK - 9
· YAG Cap – 189
· YAG Vit – 12
· SLT – 30
· LPI - 22
· iStent - 12
· Cypass – 18
· Kahook – 19
· Intacs – 10
· Zepto – 1
· ICL – 18
· LRI – 13
· MiLoop – 25
· Ingenuity – >100 (cases done with 3D stereo TV)
· ORA – 60
· LensAR AK – 3
· Flap lifts – 12
· Stromal Pockets – 14
· CXL – 50
· Secondary IOLs – 4
· CK – 6
· Flap Trauma Repair – 7
· Pterygium – 2


PM me with any questions.

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[LightBox]

This seems basically like a first job in General Ophthalmology. Not bad, but alot of this stuff you can just learn during your first year out, under a boss/mentor, and with a much bigger salary. I'm not trying to be too negative, but it would be better to have exposure to "real" cornea and glaucoma work (i.e. transplants, tubes, filters). MIGS' learning curve is very easy. Same for LASIK. Corneal inlays is going the way of the dinosaur with all of the late-onset haze happening (ask all the European former inlay surgeons).

But I guess the one benefit of this fellowship is you can market yourself better to refractive practices for your first job. They are making a pretty penny off of this volume you are doing for them. In an ideal world, this would just be a 6-month fellowship. Just my 2 cents.

 

[CECFellow2018]

Thanks for you 2 cents LightBox.

It's important to point out if you want to be a corneal transplant surgeon or perform trabs/tubes this fellowship is not geared for you.

As I've described; as a senior resident I was torn between taking a comprehensive job (read find a mentor) so that I could focus on cataract/refractive surgery or pursue a fellowship like this.

Ultimately, after exploring the market, I found that taking a general job and finding a mentor to teach the entire breadth of cataract refractive/refractive surgery was challenging and paid 2.5x what a fellow gets paid.

It's possible because I'm so green I feel this way, but I've actually found that the learning curve for LASIK is NOT easy. I think it's easy when everything goes smoothly, but the complications is where I've felt I've benefited the most from my mentorship. Additionally, I've found that if you have a true interest in refractive surgery, it's important to become comfortable with ALL of it so that you can make proper decisions with complex patients (ICL, intacs, CK, cxl, RLE, and K inlays if you so choose).

I am not completely aware what everyone does during the first year job as a comprehensive; but I wasn't able to identify any jobs were I would perform the volume I am here with ability to lean on consistent mentors. As I've shared with potential candidates, I view this fellowship as a chance to condense several years of what one would experience on the job into one year and most importantly create a toolset that would allow one to pursue job options they feel are more suited for what they're looking to provide. I've really appreciated the tangible results to this strategy as I've recently engaged in the job hunt and have found many opportunities available to me that might have otherwise not been as a senior resident

Ultimately, graduating residents should try to figure out what surgeries they want to provide their patients and pursue whatever fellowship/job will get them there. .

Good luck on the match/job searching everyone. PM with any questions.

 

[LightBox]

Just wondering, how much is this fellowship's salary? No doubt this fellowship appears to be a good surgical experience and beats out 99% of any experience one would get their first year out of residency. I'm just wondering if a full year is "worth it" in terms of opportunity cost. It would definitely be more attractive if it was 6 months long since you get enough high-volume experience during those first 6 months. How many OR rooms do they? Anyways, it seems like a sound experience and I would personally hire you in a second! I just don't think you need to commit a full-year on "learning" how to do MIGS or LASIK.

 

[Keratogonuts]

Are there other fellowships other than CEC that exist with focus on cataract/refractive only vs. cornea and refractive?

 

[ophthalmologist_tr]

I sent PM

 

[long]

Are there other fellowships other than CEC that exist with focus on cataract/refractive only vs. cornea and refractive?

Yes.