Ophthalmology

[iMonkey]

I thought I'd get something started about ophthalmology.

 

Is anyone else here interested in ophtho as a surgical specialty? I'm continuously torn between it and other surgical specialties like gen surg, ortho, ENT and plastics -- I see great aspects to all of them, and downsides to them all too.

 

Ophtho seems to be a great field for those interested in a combo of medicine and surgery, very fine surgeries and clinical and basic science research. From my experience, ophthalmologists seem to be very nice, thoughtful, interested, scientifically-minded people who value precision in their work. On the down side, it's very specialized (i.e. "only the eye"), but then again, isn't this true of any specialist's practice in a tertiary care centre? On the up side, ophthalmologists see patients ranging from newborns to the elderly, can have a huge and rapid impact on quality of life, have a well-defined domain of expertise, yet overlap in knowledge and skill several specialties like plastics, ENT, neurosurgery, neurology, rheumatology, and endocrinology.

 

I like ophthalmology. I also think a bunch of other surgical fields are cool too. If anyone else has thoughts/ideas/experiences on ophtho and/or related fields, please post here.

[iMonkey]

So nobody else likes ophtho?

[Kirsteen]

I thought I'd get something started about ophthalmology.

 

Is anyone else here interested in ophtho as a surgical specialty? I'm continuously torn between it and other surgical specialties like gen surg, ortho, ENT and plastics -- I see great aspects to all of them, and downsides to them all too.

 

Ophtho seems to be a great field for those interested in a combo of medicine and surgery, very fine surgeries and clinical and basic science research. From my experience, ophthalmologists seem to be very nice, thoughtful, interested, scientifically-minded people who value precision in their work. On the down side, it's very specialized (i.e. "only the eye"), but then again, isn't this true of any specialist's practice in a tertiary care centre? On the up side, ophthalmologists see patients ranging from newborns to the elderly, can have a huge and rapid impact on quality of life, have a well-defined domain of expertise, yet overlap in knowledge and skill several specialties like plastics, ENT, neurosurgery, neurology, rheumatology, and endocrinology.

 

I like ophthalmology. I also think a bunch of other surgical fields are cool too. If anyone else has thoughts/ideas/experiences on ophtho and/or related fields, please post here.

Hi there,

 

Tertiary care specialties with great diversity is a factor that was very important to me when choosing a career path. For that reason, I chose not to explore certain specialties further, ophtho and cardiac surgery being two of them. General Surgery offers a bit of diversity, i.e., when on call you'll see a wide array of presentations coming through the ER, but if you aim to stay at a tertiary care facility, your daily practice will tend to be more focused.

 

One specialty, however, that is very diverse and which offers the application of cutting-edge, hands-on approaches is Interventional Radiology. At most tertiary care centres you can be performing procedures on many parts of the body thereby remaining quite familiar with varied anatomy. Also, if your practice is mixed, i.e., incorporates a component of Diagnostic Radiology, then you'll be actively diagnosing pathology from all parts of the body as well. (It is not uncommon for Interventionalists to spend a few days in the reading room per week in addition to within the interventional suite.) Lastly, there are innumerable research opportunities within IR, which is often a big push at the tertiary care centers.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen