Blog

Opinion, commentary, and notes from the editorial team.

11–20 of 33 articles Page 2 of 4
  1. 3 May 2020 17 min read

    25 Basic Questions from Residents To The Academic Directors Of Three Premier Eye Care Institutes In India

    Residency in ophthalmology is getting tougher by the day. During the tenure of residency, one is filled with innumerable questions which they feel someone could help them with. This collated questionnaire is an effort in that front. It has a few relevant and common questions which a resident in ophthalmology faces every day. And who better than the heads of education of the top three ophthalmology institutes of the country to answer these questions. We have the three doyens of academics answering and guiding the basic queries during residency program. Dr. Venkatesh Prajna (DR NPV) began his career from Cornea department in 1993. He is the Chief of Medical Education of Aravind Eye Hospital & Post Graduate Institute Of Ophthalmology. Dr.N.V Prajna holds his DNB from National Board and has been awarded an honorary FRCS, Glasgow. Dr. Avinash Pathengay (Dr.AP) graduated from Stanley Medical College and went on to pursue his ophthalmology residency at Madras Medical College, following which

    Dr. Venkatesh Prajna · Dr. Avinash Pathengay · +2 others
  2. 3 May 2020 5 min read

    Tips to prepare for the DNB, Ophthalmology Examination

    eOphtha: Congrats Sabyasachi!! What is the secret of your success? Sabyasachi: Thank you very much for those kind words. I am humbled. There is no magic formula for success but a combination of hard work, perseverance and a little bit of luck does the trick. eOphtha: How should one proceed to prepare for the DNB, Ophthalmology exam? Sabyasachi: The approach to preparing for any examination must be simplistic i.e. what to read and where to read it from and finally How to read everything in a short time. These are the 3 core ingredients that, if planned and executed well, can bring success. eOphtha: Can you give us a brief idea into these ingredients? Sabyasachi: The most important consideration is where to read topics. I will give a brief outline of this. It will help students to use these resources and not only expand their knowledge base but also help them apply this to clinical scenarios and thereby improve patient care. There are basically 3 sources of reading: Conventional text Boo

    Dr. Sabyasachi Sengupta
  3. 27 Apr 2020 12 min read

    Life Lessons from Lock-down Diary of a Doctor Couple

    The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the Second World War. The new historical divide will be termed as B.C. (Before Corona) and A.C. (After Corona). There are uncertainties and lots of questions about the future of almost every domain including health, practice pattern, and career in medicine. It will take several months or even years for all of us to recover from the setback caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is always light after the dark. We, ophthalmologists, have witnessed it during our professional life several times while restoring the sight of our blind patients. The after COVID-19 era will put hygiene, health, hospitals, and the healthcare industry in focus. We will be witnessing several necessary changes in the near future with the more global focus on health, health education and increased awareness among public for sanitation, hygiene, healthy lifestyle as well as an increasing trend of digital-health (virtual consultation) and teleme

    Dr. Suresh K. Pandey · Dr. Vidushi Sharma
  4. 23 Apr 2020 5 min read

    What Does an Average Ophthalmologist Do During the COVID Lockdown?

    A short and sweet answer to the above question is: “How would I know?” I am not average – I am above average, just like my readers. Let us just proceed with my occasionally incoherent ramblings and disregard the irrelevant title of this piece. When the first ‘stay at home’ announcement came, we had already been reading about this tiny but mean virus which originated in big bad China and was slowly spreading its tentacles (not sure if you could call its spiky hairstyle as ‘tentacles’, but we will let that pass) in our beloved country. Hence we felt very patriotic and decided to co-operate with the authorities. We even put on a ‘son et lumeire’ (sound and light) show on request from the guy at the top; first sound at 5 pm and then light at 9 pm (on different days of course as decided by several astrologers). We reasoned with ourselves that a couple of weeks at home couldn’t really hurt – we will just pretend we had gone on a vacation, minus the expenses! Many of us even learnt new skills

    Dr. Quresh Maskati, MS, FCPS, DOMS, FICS
  5. 20 Apr 2020 3 min read

    "Dream big and chase it. You will reach your destination. ": Dr GN Rao

    eOphta: Ophthalmology practice in India has changed tremendously in the last couple of decades. As someone who has driven this change are you happy with what has been achieved? Dr. G N Rao: Much has changed but we still have to go a long way in achieving high quality, basic minimum standards in care and education. Right now, this is limited to a small fraction eOphta: A career in medical research is not considered rewarding in India. Your institute gives a lot of emphasis on research and has received due recognition for the same. What advice would you give to young Indian medical professionals who are ambivalent about a career in research? Dr. G N Rao: Research, in my view, cannot be forced. But for those interested, it could be very exciting. The ambivalence is largely due to no exposure to good research. If someone is inclined, that person should do a short stint with a high quality researcher. Following this, one can decide eOphta: You have overseen a very robust community ophthalmo

    Dr. G N Rao
  6. 14 Mar 2020 17 min read

    The Lost Goat and One Ophthalmologist

    After joining the medical profession, almost all doctors came to know that apart from treating a patient, he has to give sympathetic answers to all the queries that arise deep down in the hearts of the patients. These questions according to cricket terminology, come to you as “good length” or “too wide”. You have to listen carefully, patiently, and answer. After finishing the questionnaire, he can ask the same question once again. Don’t feel bad about that. After the patient has finished asking questions, the patient’s wife will again ask the same questions separately, then the patient’s uncle and then the patient’s cousin, who had come with him but was all along standing outside puffing at a cigarette or had gone out to have tea, will come back and ask the same questions. After that, the patient will find out somebody, who is known to the doctor and through him will ask the same questions about a week later. He may ask the same questions while having ice-cream together with you having

    Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas
  7. 14 Mar 2020 5 min read

    How to Present a Scientific Paper

    It's true that Computer is indeed a boon to a scientist making a presentation. Yet it is important that the presenter himself is adequately prepared for a good presentation. He needs to plan carefully and follow a few basic steps. A good scientific presentation starts from the time a paper is conceived. If you want to present a good paper, ensure that the concept is good, well thought, designed aptly, results well analysed and valid conclusions are made. You should have your ground work done and write the draft of the paper, before embarking on a presentation. A well-written draft will provide the frame work of a good presentation. Your work starts as soon as you hear that the paper has been accepted. After acceptance, you need to plan the slides, the slide text and rehearsals to fine-tune the talk. How many slides do you need? - It depends on your presentation. For an eight minute presentation it is ideal to have seven pairs or 11 to 12 pairs at the maximum, assuming each slide will t

    Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas
  8. 14 Mar 2020 7 min read

    An Autobiography of an Unknown Uveitis Specialist

    I know autobiography is usually written by great man e. g a great leader, president of a country, political leaders, a great sportsman, especially a cricketer, even a CBI director, or election commissioner. The great Nirod C Chowdhury wrote an autobigraphy of an unknown Indian. These autobiographies often disclose startling facts, relationships which sometimes cause real uproar in the society. Actually such controversies increase the sale of the book. I thought of writing this memoir not to raise any controversy or preach anything. To the best of my knowledge an autobiography has never been written by an uveitis specialist. Probably their life has often remained within haze of flare or cells in the fluid in the anterior chamber of the eye or in the vitreous cavity. In the year 1987 I became a consultant. Instead of becoming a vitreoretinal surgeon, I became the specialist (supposed to be) after fellowship in the vitreoretinal surgery to not that area rather little closer to it, which i

    Dr. Jyotirmay Biswas
  9. 25 Feb 2020 5 min read

    The Day My Patient Died

    This patient had come from 1200 km away. He was a 35 year old male with rheumatoid arthritis with bilateral corneal opacities with bilateral peripheral corneal melts. In addition, the left eye had facial palsy with corneal exposure on attempted lid closure. Vision was only perception of light with accurate projection both eyes. He had multiple medical problems besides his rheumatoid arthritis. He gave history of stroke with left sided hemiparesis 6 months prior. There was still residual weakness of motor function left upper extremity as well as left facial palsy as mentioned earlier. He had aortic stenosis with aortic regurgitation. However, he had been investigated extensively by a local cardiologist, including 2D echo studies and pronounced “fit for surgery”. After discussion with my anaesthetist, it was decided to do bilateral amniotic membrane transplant with left eye lateral one-third tarsorapphy under general anaesthesia. She felt that the ejection fraction of the heart was good,

    Dr. Quresh Maskati, MS, FCPS, DOMS, FICS
  10. 21 Feb 2020 4 min read

    Ramblings of a white bearded Ophthalmologist

    It gives me great pleasure to interact with fellow ophthalmologists through this blog. Those of you who are reading this but for some strange reason are not yet AIOS members; please assume I am annoyed with you. You may even stop reading at this point. To the rest of the "normal" readers, I wish you a wonderful 2016 Let us start at the beginning and recount a couple of interesting episodes from my student days in GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai. As an undergraduate student, I get a foreign body, cornea. I rush to the eye OPD at 8am on a weekday, with pain redness, watering and FB sensation, OD. The houseman (junior resident) on duty examines me and pronounces gravely, “you have a FB on cornea” and takes me to the registrar (senior resident). He looks at it with an even more powerful torch and repeats the same diagnosis. I am now escorted to the lecturer and my history and the examination findings are repeated to him. He takes me to the regular slit lamp and after a careful

    Dr. Quresh Maskati, MS, FCPS, DOMS, FICS