regarding fellowships..

[papilledema]

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I am currently in my prelim year and looking forward to starting Ophth in July.. I was wondering how early should Ophth residents start getting a feel about options after residency.. for e.g. to stay on in general ophth practice or continue with a fellowship and if the latter, the field one would want to subspecialize. I can imagine the earlier the better, but I feel that at this point I am really not sure.. how soon should you be letting your program know about your interests? I do have a couple of publications in glaucoma. Would this be a hinderance if I eventually decided to pursue another subspecialty like uveitis, retina or Peds and would I be expected to have published in my subspecialty of choice? Any input would be highly appreciated.. thanks!

 

[rubensan]

with your screen name, are you sure you are not going into neuro-ophthalmology? 😉 i don't think anyone expects you to know what if any fellowship you wish to pursue at this stage of the game. and there is plenty of time to change your mind during residency. retina and plastics are competitive (plastics is also an earlier match) so you should probably decide in your first year of ophtho residency if you are planning to go down those routes. other than that, see what you like and do a fellowship if it interests you. publications are publications and your glaucoma manuscripts won't hurt (and will actually help) your application to any fellowship . you have 3 years to pursue research in the field that interests you. you are right, the earlier you decide, the easier it is, but how do you know if you like (or dislike) pediatric ophthalmology until you do it? at your stage of the game, i would concentrate on finishing internship, passing Step III and pick up the Fundamentals of ophthalmology text of the BCS series and start doing some light reading. Also, get your hands on the Update in general medicine text of the BSC series and do the questions at the back to test your knowledge. I guarantee some of the questions and pictures will appear on your OKAPs during your residency.