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Ophthalmology Residency - Visual Acuity Requirement


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I noticed some schools suggested a visual acuity score of 20/20 was recommended for their residency program (on CaRMS program description). How important is this (in terms of getting into the residency and practicing as an ophthalmologist)? Do ophthalmologist generally not wear glasses?

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I noticed some schools suggested a visual acuity score of 20/20 was recommended for their residency program (on CaRMS program description). How important is this (in terms of getting into the residency and practicing as an ophthalmologist)? Do ophthalmologist generally not wear glasses?

Pretty sure that's corrected acuity. I think 2/3s of the ones I've met wear glasses actually.

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guys...it's not just BCVA - it's also the # of arcs for stereopsis as well. Depth perception is really important for microsx!

 

Go check with your optometrist. You should be getting at least 2.3 arcs or better.

I just meant you don't need 20/20 uncorrected to be an ophthalmologist haha. I know nothing more than that.

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Anybody know if colour vision is vital for ophthalmology or any other field of medicine?

 

not sure about ophthalmology but I haven't heard of any real restrictions on that. There are some places in medicine with colour coding by that can be worked around easily enough and they are pretty rare. 

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not sure about ophthalmology but I haven't heard of any real restrictions on that. There are some places in medicine with colour coding by that can be worked around easily enough and they are pretty rare. 

 

 

Hey rmorelan, would you mind expounding on this? :) For someone who has a mild color vision issue, how limited would our residency options be? 

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Hey rmorelan, would you mind expounding on this? :) For someone who has a mild color vision issue, how limited would our residency options be? 

 

well my point was I don't think they are all that limited at all. I mean there are some colour coded imaging studies in rads and nuclear med and also pathology techniques that of course rely on colour  which would make come areas a bit challenging. I am not a surgeon but I suspect not being able to tell blood from bile from bowel contents from infection might be tricky although there are other ways for of course knowing that as well. Anesthesia often use colour coding to prep medications and there are a lot of things that have a colour code to easily know what size or type something is.

 

I am sure a lot of this is just from convenience and there are work arounds. I am not seeing any large scale barriers here - which is why it isn't listed anywhere AS a major limitation.

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hello,

 

I'm interested by ophto but I would like to know how difficult it is to work as an ophthalmologist, I mean is it really challenging technically?

 

I appears to be the toughest surgery to me but I may be wrong, so I'd like your opinions if anyone could help me.

 

thanks a lot

You'd have to define "toughest".

 

Most Delicate? Optho does some very fine intricate work. But so does cardiac and microsurgical plastics.

 

Highest stakes? Vascular, neurosurg and Cardiac are all much higher stakes than optho.

 

Physically hardest? Gen surg does whipple's, Uro does cystectomy Neobladders and ENT/plastics does crazy long face/head/neck surgeries. All those can easily stretch to an entire day of operating or longer. Ortho requires a load of physical strength.

 

Most techically challanging? There are some extremely challanging laparoscopic surgeries in general surgery and Urology. Cardiac does minimally invasive chest surgery.

 

Lifestyle? Optho is a breeze. Ask the neurosurg guys or general surgeons who are operating a ton overnight.

 

It really depends what you mean by toughest.

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thanks for your answer, I meant technically challenging, cause an eye is so small, I fear that maybe I would be skilled enough, 

It's challenging in it's own way. It's also pretty challenging to try and control a torn open IVC or aorta under 3 inches of blood in the field before the guy bleeds to death within 1-2 minutes.

 

There is no easy surgery. You just pick the field and challenges you like.

 

You can train the vast majority of people to perform surgery. People who wash out due to a lack of technical skills are very rare. Usually it's a cognitive issue washing them out or lack of desire/drive to succeed. Even that is rare.

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You'd have to define "toughest".

 

Most Delicate? Optho does some very fine intricate work. But so does cardiac and microsurgical plastics.

 

Highest stakes? Vascular, neurosurg and Cardiac are all much higher stakes than optho.

 

Physically hardest? Gen surg does whipple's, Uro does cystectomy Neobladders and ENT/plastics does crazy long face/head/neck surgeries. All those can easily stretch to an entire day of operating or longer. Ortho requires a load of physical strength.

 

Most techically challanging? There are some extremely challanging laparoscopic surgeries in general surgery and Urology. Cardiac does minimally invasive chest surgery.

 

Lifestyle? Optho is a breeze. Ask the neurosurg guys or general surgeons who are operating a ton overnight.

 

It really depends what you mean by toughest.

 

ha - never was sure what the incentive of something being tough is with respect to surgery anyway - do you like the work? do you find the field interesting?

 

the stakes I would agree are higher in other fields - don't get me wrong, losing an eye is very nasty. However a lot of the other fields routinely are more in the realm of losing a life.

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