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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
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Year : 2018 | Volume
: 66
| Issue : 3 | Page : 480 |
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Response to: Pediatric ophthalmology training in India
Sucheta Parija, Preetam Mahajan
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Date of Web Publication | 26-Feb-2018 |
Correspondence Address: Dr. Sucheta Parija Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Odisha India
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1215_17
How to cite this article: Parija S, Mahajan P. Response to: Pediatric ophthalmology training in India. Indian J Ophthalmol 2018;66:480 |
Dear Sir,
Thanks for showing interest in the article titled, “Is pediatric ophthalmology a popular subspecialty in India: Present scenario and future remedies.”[1] In our study, though most respondents expected to choose pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus (POS) as a subspecialty were from Odisha, the expert group constituted were from different parts of India. They had more than 10 years of experience in the field and have been training residents hailing from across the country. Hence, through our study, we can capture the current trends across the country and also some of the reasons behind choosing certain subspecialties after postgraduation in ophthalmology. Lifestyle, prestige, personal interest, and income are some of the major factors that influenced the young ophthalmologists to pursue other subspecialties as compared to POS.
As stated by the authors, by and large certain subspecialties such as cataract and retina receive better exposure than strabismus and orthoptic workup during postgraduate training. In the study by Biswas et al.[2] the authors have rightly stated that the residency training in the 21st century has resulted in better exposure of the residents to modern technologies such as use of A and B scan, LASERS, and fluorescein angiography as compared to synoptophore and pediatric visual acuity testing. Surgical exposure for strabismus has been minimal for most ophthalmology residents. This itself reflects that resident doctors have minimal exposure in this subject. Under such circumstances, role models (i.e. well-trained and skilled faculty) are needed to inspire and provide early exposure to the subject and thus positively influence the residents to pursue a particular subspecialty as their career choice.
We agree with Honavar,[3] who emphasized in their editorial write up [3] that the All India Ophthalmological Society needs to be proactive and play a leadership role in implementing a structured curriculum across different universities in India in time to follow. The curricula of UK and USA are very structured, uniform with an exit examination system.[4],[5] Training programs are competency based. We propose that residency curriculum in India too helps master certain basic skills/competencies, for example, clinical and surgical training, academic and research, communication skills, and teaching skills. There must be feedback and evaluation system to assess their training. Hence, whether the lacuna lies in the curriculum, the medical teachers or the system, we should all join hands to make this subspecialty interesting and attractive.
To conclude, we completely agree with the authors that childhood blindness is a global burden, and hence, all ophthalmologists must be trained to treat the common ocular problems and refractive errors leaving the complex diseases of cataract and strabismus for the POS specialties to treat.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References | | |
1. | Parija S, Mahajan P. Is pediatric ophthalmology a popular subspecialty in India: Present scenario and future remedies. Indian J Ophthalmol 2017;65:1187-91. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
2. | Biswas P, Gogate PM, Maskati QB, Natarajan S, Verma L, Bansal P. Residency evaluation and adherence design study III: Ophthalmology residency training in India. Then & now improving with time? Ind J Ophthalmol 2017;65:9. |
3. | Honavar SG. Ophthalmology residency training in India: Quo Vadis? Indian J Ophthalmol 2017;65:427-8. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
4. | Yousuf SJ, Jones LS. Ophthalmology residency match outcomes for 2011. Ophthalmology 2012;119:642-6. [ PUBMED] |
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