I'm a resident at Casey, so thought I could give some insight into the mysterious retina fellowship void that has confounded the ophthalmic community 😉
I think people haven't applied for retina for the past 4 years because of a few issues:
1. Residents have liked other subspecialties more than retina: we had a few recent grads go into oculoplastics, cornea, glaucoma, or even comprehensive. I don't know that I would call oculoplastics a specialty for the laid-back! No one has fallen for retina more than another specialty 🙁
2. Our retina rotation has been combined with the inpatient consult service, which made for an exhausting retina rotation. This will no longer be the case. However, in the past, when we were on the retina service, we were paged for urgent hospital/ER issues and this fragmented our day. We would often wait until the end of the day to see our consults, which would make for long days. Or, if we had to leave early, we would miss cool surgeries, or feel bad leaving our attendings who were eager to teach us. We felt pulled in different directions, and it was frustrating.
We approached our PD about the issue, and he's changed things. We now have a dedicated "consult resident" who sees the consults and ER patients. In their "downtime" there will be time for research. Hallelujah!
3. Some people may not want the additional 2 years of training. This is partially why I decided not to do this. I LOVED retina, and I was encouraged to apply. They made it clear that I would be supported in my decision. I would have loved to stay at Casey for fellowship, since they have incredible attendings, a very bonded program, and fantastic surgical numbers. However, I love comprehensive ophtho just as much, and I can start this right away! Our PD puts absolutely no pressure on us to do a fellowship, he really tries to help us come to a decision about what is best for our own individual situation. For me, this was comprehensive.
On a separate note, as for the panel interview - I agree, it's not ideal! I've been rallying to change this as well, to no avail... The committee members all want to hear the same information about the applicants, without having the applicant repeat themselves 6 times. I think this makes it hard for applicants to have a "conversation" with the committee members, who are really funny, intelligent, cool people - you just might not be able to tell when they all look like a wall of nodding faces..... My advice is to chat with them at the lunch (well, that's advice for next year's applicants).
I welcome other questions about the program if you have them. I personally think Casey is the best environment for training in the country, but everyone has to find something that matches their personality and learning style.
Good luck on the match everyone!
