Retina Fellowship Preparation

[syri]

Hi
I just matched for a retina fellowship position and am very happy about where I am going. I wanted to hear from any current or previous fellows as to what they suggest doing to prepare for the fellowship during this last 6 months of residency.
Of course more surgical experience the better but what about books or any other materials?
How did you read in your fellowship? Did you just read through the big volumes straight through? What books are good for a retina fellowship?
Thank you in advance

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[syri]

anyone?

 

[MstaKing10]

I have the same question. For what it's worth I asked my retina attending and he did mention several IVFA, atlases and other review books but overall told me to get the most out of my last few rotations in general/comprehensive ophthalmology. He has been in practice for a long time though so not sure if this is outdated advice, but does seem reasonable.

 

[Visionary]

My fellowship was in medical retina, but I did work with surgical attendings and fellows. You'll find that the attendings at each institution tend to differ in philosophies and techniques. They tend to want you to assimilate their approaches, in some instances leaving behind what you learned in residency--tabula rasa, as it were. This pertains to medical and surgical aspects alike.

I would focus on making the most of the remainder of your residency training, with attention to ophthalmology as a whole. In fellowship, you will not see much cornea, glaucoma, plastics, etc., though you will still have to prepare for boards (which will cover all of that). I actually learned more retina in the first few months of fellowship than I did in all of residency. There's a big difference between seeing retina now and then and seeing it all day, every day. You'll be amazed!

You picked a great subspecialty! Good luck!