New Direction for the Ophtho forum if interested?

[Bluesclera]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi SDN ophtho posters,

I was wondering if people in this forum would be interested in expanding the scope of our discussions. Specifically we would benefit from discussions from specialists who chose the many fields within ophthalmology. Possibly, even contact the representative organizations or leaders in the field (AAPOS, ASOPRS, Glaucoma, uveitis, ocular oncology, retina, cornea, etc) to give a short Q&A.

I would be happy to contact a few mentors if people are interested in this type of information.

Furthermore, I'm not trying to step of anyone's feet, I just like how helpful this forum has been and continues to be for me and I would like to see the discussions to extend further than "what are my chances/ can I get in with my scores". Not to undermine those posts, because a place like this facilities and helps provide confidence when we are down.

We have some posts that are stickys by "Andrew_Doan" and they are valuable reads. In addition, I think what Neutropeniaboy put together for the SDN ENT forum (Advice to the Hopeful: Going for Otolaryngology- a must read even for the non-ENT because it has some great cross speciality tips)
just summed up all of the recurrent questions regarding ENT matching and what steps he recommends at various levels of training (undergrad to residency).

If one of the experts from the Ophtho thread (Visionary, Dr. Zeke, Andrew_Doan, would put together a similar ophtho post we probably could evolve this forum into a stronger community that could help all ranges of students to practitioners (medical students all the way to practicing attendings). Also I understand that it is not easy to sit down and write a "how to guide" and we could also share some of the responsibility of investigating resources and tips. So even non-attendings / program directors can provide advice that has helped them along the process.

This mentorship approach is one of the many reasons I chose medicine. Ophthalmologists, at least in my experience, have been excellent in sharing their wisdom to the various trainees.

Hope to help and would be happy to hear different perspectives!

-Blue

 

[DrZeke]

I like the sound of this.

In terms of advice for matching, we could sticky a thread. I do think "what are my chances" threads are pretty silly. I think a sticky can provide a place for students to ask specific questions. Im tired of the threads where people are looking for ego boosting. If we had a sticky thread for questions and a guide it would always be at the time and all could be redirected there.

A former upperclassman of mine wrote an awesome match guide at my med school. In addition there are plenty of
Guides online. We could probably combine those and update Some of Dr Doan's former posts.

 

[Bluesclera]

absolutely agree! Dr. Doan did a great job of setting up the forum and it's a matter of consolidating resources and tips. Ok good so Im not the only one that thinks this lol

 

[eye love lamp]

Yeah I was thinking of some things that would help this forum. For one the sticky threads could use some updating (eg the Flame thread that hasn't been touched in about a year, a match poll from 2010).

I think it would be neat to consolidate the sticky by type of user we have here. One post could be a "how to match into ophtho" like is described above. Another thread could be a collection of topics for entering/current residents such as:

BIO headset discussions
Lens discussions
Reading/Study schedules
Free online resources (we could even break it down by specialty)
OKAP tips/discussion (we could have a whole thread dedicated to users asking each other and answering questions with discussion)
National meeting discussions/tips
Fellowship considerations

Not sure the best way to set this sort of thing up. We could do it like the Table of Contents for each residency location (where each program has their own thread and is linked to one main page) or have a single thread where the first post of the thread is updated with content posted below.

 

[DrZeke]

I don't mind organizing some of this if anyone wants to assign tasks. How do the other do other specialties forums organize these things?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Great idea!!! I am no longer the moderator as I don't have time. Perhaps it's time for a new moderator?
I will contribute content, but I cannot moderate this forum. It's amazing to see how this forum has grown from a handful of people to now a thriving online community!

 

[Bluesclera]

http://www.studentdoctor.net/2012/01/20-questions-christopher-k-thiagarajah-md/

This is a great example of a ophthalmologist's profile that would help trainees understand the various subspecialties.