Clinical training

During the Glaucoma Fellowship, you participate in all aspects of the glaucoma service, including clinical and surgical care of patients; didactic and informal educational sessions with faculty, residents and medical students; and at least one research project.

Rotation descriptions

A sample weekly rotation schedule includes:

Call frequency

During the Glaucoma Fellowship, you are not obligated to take routine eye emergency calls. For emergencies involving glaucoma, you are expected to be available and share the service's on-call pager with the resident on the service.

Moonlighting

You may moonlight with program director approval. Moonlighting should not interfere with the required learning and must not violate the duty-hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or visa regulations.

Research training

Glaucoma research has a long and productive history at Mayo Clinic. Current research areas include clinical outcomes studies, aqueous humor dynamics, genetics, epidemiology, and development of novel diagnostic instruments.

You have time dedicated to participate in and complete at least one research project. You participate in weekly glaucoma research meetings. In addition, you have the opportunity to attend a series of research seminars that are presented annually in the department. Research mentorship is provided by the Glaucoma Fellowship faculty and other members of the department actively involved in research. Research projects may be clinical or basic science related.

You are encouraged to present your research findings at a meeting that appears appropriate for the subject material, such as those sponsored by the American Glaucoma Society, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), or the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Before the meeting date, you are able to present your research within the department for critique and feedback.

Didactic training

Didactic training is an integral part of the Glaucoma Fellowship. You are expected to attend weekly Grand Rounds and participate in regular glaucoma case conferences throughout the year. You are also involved in resident education, including the glaucoma portion of the department's didactic lecture series given annually.

Conferences

You are required to attend weekly grand rounds presentations at 7:15 a.m. on Mondays. During the one-year fellowship, you prepare and present two 20-minute grand rounds presentations to the residents and staff. These presentations may include discussions related to ongoing research or novel topics.

You also attend and assist in the resident lecture series (four evenings a year) and quarterly case presentation conferences on topics of glaucoma. In addition, you organize and lead the quarterly glaucoma journal club attended by staff and residents. Finally, you participate in biweekly informal glaucoma case conferences.

Teaching opportunities

You have the opportunity to teach students from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, visiting students from other medical schools and ophthalmology residents in clinical settings as well as in didactic lectures.

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, your performance is monitored carefully during the Glaucoma Fellowship. You are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members on a quarterly basis and meet with the program director to review these evaluations. In addition, you regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm that your educational needs are being met.