What subspeciality are you going into?

[JR]

I thought it would be fun to poll the new PGY-3s (and PGY-4s for that matter) to see what sub-specialty people are thinking of going into and why.
Personally, I am deciding between glaucoma and retina. I am currently finishing my glaucoma rotation and have already done a bunch of 1st class trabs. I like glaucoma surgery; glaucoma is a very small subfield and you can potentially become very good at what you do; you can see a TON of patients a day; there are various new technologies on the horizon, etc. On the other hand, I can see how this field may be too narrow for me. Retina is also cool (have not done the rotation yet though) both surgically and medically, especially with anti-VEGF therapies coming out. However, in most cases, retina surgeons do give up their ophthalmology lifestyles.

Anybody else?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ryangeraets]

I'm applying to retina (2 year) right now.

I'm trying to go back to a fairly small (but tight) market after fellowship, and I can tell you that almost every single person I talked to asked if I might be more interested in doing Glaucoma rather than Retina because "if you were interested in Glaucoma we would practically offer you a contract right now".

If you are on the fence right now between Glaucoma and Retina, and really could be happy doing either, I'd lean toward Glaucoma because you really could practice almost anywhere you want and how you want (retaining a variable percentage of a general ophthalmology practice as well).

Just my two cents.

Contrats on finishing the first year of ophtho...if you thought it was good last year, just wait. It seems to get more and more enjoyable the further along you get.

Have a good year.

 

[GuP]

What are the differences between a retina vs a glaucoma specialist besides their obvious scope of practice? Compensation? Job market? Future of the field? Saturation? Lifestyle? etc...

 

[7ontheline]

I'm currently a month into glaucoma fellowship and I love it. I thought I had pretty good clinical training in glaucoma in residency (and I did) but I've learned so much already in just a month.

In any case, glaucoma is a better lifestyle than retina, although the compensation is less. The job market for glaucoma is really food right now though.

 

[rubensan]

The job market for glaucoma is really food right now though.

did you mean the job market is really good?

also, is glaucoma appealing because you can still be a comprehensive ophthalmologist as well, i.e. not have to give up doing cataract surgery?

 

[sjkpark]

I thought it would be fun to poll the new PGY-3s (and PGY-4s for that matter) to see what sub-specialty people are thinking of going into and why.
Personally, I am deciding between glaucoma and retina. I am currently finishing my glaucoma rotation and have already done a bunch of 1st class trabs. I like glaucoma surgery; glaucoma is a very small subfield and you can potentially become very good at what you do; you can see a TON of patients a day; there are various new technologies on the horizon, etc. On the other hand, I can see how this field may be too narrow for me. Retina is also cool (have not done the rotation yet though) both surgically and medically, especially with anti-VEGF therapies coming out. However, in most cases, retina surgeons do give up their ophthalmology lifestyles.

Anybody else?

Most of the glaucoma specialists I know have something else. Glaucoma AND medical retina or neuroophthalmology. Isn't that possible?

 

[PDT4CNV]

Most of the glaucoma specialists I know have something else. Glaucoma AND medical retina or neuroophthalmology. Isn't that possible?

There are 5 glaucoma specialists at my institution. None of them do anything else except glaucoma + some general.

Doing glaucoma is like tieing an albatross around your neck. At some point, it is nice to discharge a patient from your practice before they die.

 

[Light]

Hi everyone! Been a while. Saw this thread and thought i'd chirp in...PGY 3 (2/3 ophtho) now, and i defn. agree, gets much more enjoyable as time progresses.

I've also noticed that there is a growing interest in glaucoma, largely due to the fact that one can get a job almost anywhere, yet retain some gen practice and still do cataracts, but this is just what i've noticed.

As for me, i'm gonna try for retina, i think the horizon for research opportunities is most expansive w/retina, and it'll be interesting to see where all this VEGF stuff goes, esp w/the new traps going to clinical trials now. It's also an exciting field as who knows where it'll be in another 10yrs, after all, just 10yrs ago it was all diabetic retinopathy, now it's all avastin/lucentis