How Procedural is Optho?

[DubbiDoctor]

Hello, I am a medical school applicant hoping to matriculate in 2018, and am interested in learning more about the different specialties. I come from a neuroscience background and am very interested in eye pathology, but am hesitant about performing delicate procedures on patients' eyes (if I'm fortunate enough to get into medical school and match to optho, which is very competitive). Do all ophthalmologists perform delicate procedures, such as laser surgery and cataract removal? What kind of fellowships are available in optho? (I tried going on sfmatch, but it would not load).

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[Nikj]

Sound like you'd be interested in neuro-ophthalmology. Heres a link explaining the subfield and fellowship training www.nanosweb.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3279

edit: I don't know enough about ophtha procedures, but I'd imagine to be working in any scenario, hospital or private practice, a good amount of procedures would have to be performed.

 

[sab3156]

During residency, you have to perform surgery. Ophtho is a surgical specialty, and there isn't any getting around that as there are regulations governing residency training laid down by the ACGME. Afterwards, you may choose not to do surgery. Plenty of ophthalmologists practice only the medical side, and refer their patients out for surgery.

 

[MstaKing10]

It's a surgical subspecialty. Look into neurology or maybe radiology if you're not interested in surgery but have an interest in neuroscience

 

[specialagentdalecooper]

It is also possible to match into neuro-ophthalmology after training in a neurology residency, which doesn't involve surgical training (so long as lumbar punctures aren't too procedural for you). Neuro-ophtho is a fascinating field; it requires an impressive fund of knowledge and has diverse pathology and patient populations. The remainder of the ophthalmological subspecialties and comprehensive ophthalmology, like everyone above said, all require surgical training through an ophthalmology residency.

That said, neuro-ophtho is pretty far down the specialization track. Given you haven't started med school, you still have many huge experiences in front of you that are likely to significantly affect your priorities, interests, and general outlook. I'm sure you're aware and just can't help thinking/getting curious about options down the road -- it's exciting stuff! Good luck on the application cycle.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

It is also possible to match into neuro-ophthalmology after training in a neurology residency, which doesn't involve surgical training (so long as lumbar punctures aren't too procedural for you). Neuro-ophtho is a fascinating field; it requires an impressive fund of knowledge and has diverse pathology and patient populations. The remainder of the ophthalmological subspecialties and comprehensive ophthalmology, like everyone above said, all require surgical training through an ophthalmology residency.

That said, neuro-ophtho is pretty far down the specialization track. Given you haven't started med school, you still have many huge experiences in front of you that are likely to significantly affect your priorities, interests, and general outlook. I'm sure you're aware and just can't help thinking/getting curious about options down the road -- it's exciting stuff! Good luck on the application cycle.

Thanks a lot. That was very helpful. Eye pathology and the visual system are very interesting, but I don't believe surgery is what I'm suited for, based on my clumsiness and lack of dexterity with my hands. Neuro-ophtho seems very interesting, and I'll try to speak to/shadow people in the field when in medical school. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do procedures, but doubt I could perform multi-hour surgeries requiring sustained concentration, lack of breaks, and strong motor skills. Handwriting and other fine-motor tasks have always been difficult for me (I needed a lot of extra help in orgo lab), though I have made significant progress. Neurology is a field that strongly appeals to me, along with Psych, EM, IM and ophtho, so I'll definitely have a lot to think about and explore!