Ophthalmology Residency Program

Program Instructor: Isao Saito

1. Program Objectives and Features

1. the purpose
   • a) Through ophthalmological treatment, students will understand the characteristics of ophthalmological diseases and acquire the basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of general clinicians.
   • b) Under the guidance of senior doctors, students will be responsible for diagnosis, examination, surgery, and postoperative care of hospitalized ophthalmology patients, and will understand how to proceed with the basic medical treatment process.
   • c) By participating in various conferences, academic activities, and department head rounds, students will improve their diagnostic skills and understand the process of determining treatment plans.
Features
Ophthalmology is a specialty that deals with the organs of vision and their accessory organs, which are special sensory organs. Therefore, ophthalmic examinations and tests are highly specialized and diverse, and sufficient time and proficiency are required for treatment. Therefore, this program, taking into consideration the constraints of the training period, focuses on developing the basic ophthalmic knowledge and ophthalmic judgment skills considered necessary for general medical practice.

2. Training and Guidance System

As a general rule, daily training is provided by staff who are certified as specialists by the Japanese Ophthalmological Society, and is generally conducted one-on-one through daily clinical practice. Residents are required to prepare a monthly report on the training topics and submit it to their instructor. Based on this, training instructors, below the director level, meet with the residents once a month to discuss their progress and any issues.

3. Goal

<1> General Goals

• (a) Understand the structure and function of the visual organs and their appendages.
• (b) Understand the meaning of ophthalmic examinations and how to evaluate them, and be able to develop ophthalmic examinations necessary for various ophthalmic diseases.
• (c) Through daily clinical practice, strive to understand ophthalmic diseases and deepen your understanding of their pathology and treatment methods.
• (d) To deepen knowledge about ophthalmic emergencies and understand appropriate responses and treatments.
• (e) To deepen awareness of ophthalmic diseases that may cause hospital-acquired infections and understand appropriate treatment and prevention methods.
• (f) By experiencing a simulated visual impairment, students will become aware of the importance of vision in everyday life, and by experiencing actual visual rehabilitation, they will deepen their understanding of the social reintegration and support of the visually impaired.

<2> Experience and learning goals

• (a) Ophthalmological examination
• (b) Ophthalmological Examination Method
  • ・ Vision test, refraction test, intraocular pressure test, color vision test
  • Corneal endothelial testing, corneal topography analysis, corneal sensation testing
  • ・Tear secretion function test, lacrimal test
  • Fluorescein fundus examination (fluorescein indocyanine green), optical coherence tomography fundus examination
  • ・Visual field tests (dynamic quantitative visual field tests, static quantitative visual field tests), gonioscopy
  • ・Pupillary examination, electroretinogram
  • ・Eye position test, binocular vision function test
  • ・Various imaging tests (plain X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc.)
• (c) Symptoms to be experienced
    Decreased visual acuity, metamorphopsia, double vision, floaters, photopsia, ocular itching, photophobia, visual field disturbance, night blindness, hyperemia, ocular foreign body sensation, eye pain, lacrimation, proptosis, ptosis.
• (d) Diseases to be experienced
  • (1) Refractive errors
  • (2) Eyelid, corneal, and conjunctival diseases
  • (3) Lacrimal system and lacrimal duct diseases
  • (4) Cataract
  • (5) Glaucoma
  • (6) Uveitis
  • (7) Retinal detachment
  • (8) Ocular circulatory disorders and ischemic diseases, such as changes in the fundus due to diabetes, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis
  • (9) Congenital and acquired retinal degenerative diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration
  • (10) Optic neuritis, eye position/eye movement abnormalities

4. Weekly Schedule

• Department head rounds: Held twice a week to discuss each patient's problems and treatment plans.
• Preoperative consideration: After the department head's rounds, the surgical procedure will be considered for patients scheduled for surgery.
• Case studies: Interesting cases will be reviewed at conferences from time to time.

5. Achievement assessment

At the end of their ophthalmology training, the trainees' level of achievement is evaluated by the head of the ophthalmology department, who serves as the overall supervisor, taking into account the opinions of the training instructors.

The evaluation consists of (1) self-evaluation by the trainee, (2) evaluation of reports on cases in their care, and (3) an interview with a supervising physician. In addition to medical experience and knowledge, trainees are evaluated on the personality traits desired in a doctor.