Ophthalmology, University of Washington
The Retina Fellows Institute organized by Alcon, held on November 23, 2019 at their Fort Worth facility, brought together well-respected faculty in the field of vitreoretinal surgery to teach new first-year fellows about the finer aspects of clinical and surgical care of patients. When I learned of the program and the faculty that were to be assembled from across the country, I wanted to be a part of the day so that I could learn clinical pearls from the leaders in the field. It is not every day that one can assemble such a diverse set of teachers together, so I was thrilled that Alcon had done so for the benefit of the fellows in the program.
The program gave me a finer appreciation of the field of vitreoretinal surgery. The faculty gave talks and led workshops on a diverse set of topics, some techniques that I had only sparingly heard about or used in practice. Moreover, it was very beneficial to hear about the experiences of various surgeons, especially about their own experiences in training. There was a good balance between skills workshops and the didactic portion of the program. It was a nice balance to hear about various techniques and then being able to put them to practice in the wet lab portions. It was a unique program where not only did the fellows get to try the various skills, but we had the opportunity to practice and learn these skills with experts watching us and providing real-time feedback.
What was most unique about this program was the collaborative and encouraging atmosphere at the Institute. As a first-year fellow with just a few months of training under my belt, it was a unique experience to be doing vitreoretinal surgical steps with pioneers in the field providing feedback. The faculty were actively engaged in teaching fellows and translating the skills to us so we could use them as we progress in our training. It was a humbling experience to spend one on one time with respected faculty and hear their feedback as I went through the exercises with them. Retina is a small and specialized field and to be able to meet them in such a collaborative atmosphere was very special.
It was also nice to catch up with my peers in training. Having met many of them during the fellowship interview trail it was good to see how everyone was doing. I plan on keeping in touch with the faculty, and especially my peers, as I am sure we will see each other for many years to come at meetings and workshops and collaborate on clinical and research projects in the future.
The program organized by Alcon provided a unique opportunity to learn new surgical techniques and get advice early in my career as a vitreo-retinal specialist. The opportunity to work with the faculty and catch up with my peers at the Alcon Retina Fellows Institute Program will always stay with me. The program provides a strong foundation in terms of faculty and peer contact as well as active surgical teaching that I hope will propel me forward in my training and hopefully to a career in academic retina practice. I am thankful to Alcon for putting together this special program and I am sure it will continue to inspire future fellows that go through the program in the coming years.
Debarshi Mustafi, MD, PhD is a Retina Fellow from the University of Washington, Department of Ophthalmology. He has been recognized with national awards from the Retina Research Foundation, the Gordon Research Conference on Genomics and the Microscopy Society of America.