EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/91447
22 EW NEWS & OPINION Having continued from page 20 research, which includes FDA and non-FDA funded projects. I am a big believer in community outreach and helping the disadvantaged and uninsured through free health clinics and the Eye Care America project. Dr. Chang: What is your goal with the fellowship program? Dr. Toyos: My goal in the fellowship program is to involve students in all aspects of my profession so they can have a good sense of what is avail- able to them if they choose our profession. I also want to inspire them to be significant contributors to whatever they choose to pursue in the future. Dr. Chang: Tell us about your first summer intern, and describe her experience and yours. Dr. Toyos: After several medical students applied to the program, HCOE picked Lauren Arditti to join us. She spent 2 months in our clinic. She observed surgery, worked up patients, accompanied me to hospital meetings, worked on research projects, practiced working under the microscope, and learned how to the exam patients with the slit lamp, among other things. She was an eager, intelligent, personable woman who we were sad to see leave. She concluded after complet- ing the program that she would love to be an ophthalmologist. We were very lucky to have such an incredible student as our first fellow. (Note to residency directors: Start recruiting her now.) She has set the bar pretty high for all subsequent students. Dr. Chang: What is the best way to increase diversity in our profession? She Googled it.le Dr. Toyos: The simple answer is one student at a time. I believe this is a problem of exposure and mentoring. Many medical students are not exposed to ophthalmology and therefore do not seek out mentors. I myself stumbled on to ophthal- mology when my research mentor suggested I do a rotation in ophthalmology because he noticed that I had talent in microsurgery from my research involving operating on rats. I encourage my colleagues in private practice to set up similar fellowships in their area. I had a great time mentoring. As I have learned time and time again, when you give, you get much more in return. EW Contact information Toyos: rostar80@gmail.com EyeWorld factoid 53% of American adults age 65 and older use the internet and 30% of websites contain inaccurate medical information, according to recent studies. Guide your patients to websites with high levels of medical accuracy. www.eyesurgeryeducation.org The number of people who have cataract is estimated to increase to 30.1 million by 2020 Source: Lighthouse International November 2012 Sponsored by