EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
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14 Ophthalmology Business • September 2017 by Maxine Lipner, Contributing Writer Training residents for success the wet lab and using pricey surgical simulators. Surprisingly, use of state-of-the- art technology did not necessarily translate into the greatest sense of preparedness. "The surgical simula- tor, which is often the most expen- sive tool that we have on the market, didn't uniformly equate to a sense of preparedness," Dr. Sikder said. "Certainly, the surgical simulator was found to be helpful, but it wasn't a case that if you had one you could sit your resident in front of it and hope that the resident would be competent by the end of the simulation use." Instead, it was hands-on su- pervision from a more experienced practitioner that proved to have the in resident education. "At Johns Hop- kins, we have an interest in surgical education and how we can use tech- nology to promote surgical compe- tency and create the best surgeons," Dr. Sikder said. "But the real driving factor for this paper was the fact that there are so many different tools available to help residents prepare." As part of the study, a survey was sent to all ophthalmology residency programs within the U.S. "We had a total of 116 residents who completed the survey," Dr. Sikder said, adding that investigators asked about an array of tools, from simple steps such as reviewing the charts in preparation for surgery or having a traditional didactic lecture to spending time in Which methods help most E veryone wants resi- dents to be as prepared as possible to perform cataract procedures, but are there certain training methods that may be per- ceived by residents as more useful than others? That's what investiga- tors set out to determine, according to Shameema Sikder, MD, assis- tant professor of ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. The study was published in the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. 1 Investigators wanted to hone in on the latest technology and its role Spending time in a wet lab getting hands-on experience is perceived as valuable by residents for building confidence. Source: Shameema Sikder, MD