Pupillary Pathways

Ocular disease residencies are one of the most sought after and competitive residency type programs for optometry. I was able to chat with Dr. Dean Fasciani about why he chose to pursue a residency in ocular disease, and how this decision shaped his future career. 

Most of you 4th year students have either recently made the transition to your final rotation site, or are about to change locations within the next few weeks. Your last rotation site is going to be expecting a lot from you.

You are getting closer and closer to graduation and becoming a doctor, and with that comes a lot of responsibilities. You will need to feel comfortable making complex medical decisions on your own, and you will need to be confident as an eye care provider when presented with tough patients.

This is your last chance to take it all in, learn from your attending doctors, and make the most of your final few months working with some of the best optometrists and teachers out there. 

After years of preparation, months of studying, and weeks of waiting for the results, NBEO Part II scores were finally released! I’m sure you all did a fabulous job and passed with flying colors!

You are now one step closer to graduation and becoming a doctor; how exciting is that?! Now it’s time to celebrate your hard work; you deserve it!

In October of 2015, all healthcare providers were required to make the conversion from medical coding with the ICD-9 system to the “new and improved” ICD-10 system. With this transition came over 65,000 new codes in an attempt to smooth billing processes and assist in cost reduction across the healthcare delivery system nationwide. 

Dr. Reena Patel earned her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO) at Marshall B. Ketchum University. Upon graduation from SCCO, Dr. Patel went on to pursue a residency in Pediatric Optometry at State University of New York (SUNY), College of Optometry.

Once her residency was completed, Dr. Patel chose to continue her career at SUNY as assistant clinical faculty. She supervised residents in the areas of pediatrics, infant vision care, and vision therapy, including therapy for preschool aged children as well as children with special needs. She performed direct care at New York University’s Eye Clinic, located in NYU’s Student Health Center. 

Dr. Patel joined the Vision Therapy and Pediatric Vision Care faculty at SCCO in 2011. She is a full-time assistant professor with clinical and laboratory teaching responsibilities in the Vision Therapy and Pediatric services. She is an investigator with the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) and conducts research in the areas of amblyopia, strabismus, binocular vision disorders and myopia control. 

Pediatrics and vision therapy residencies are much less common than the most of the other residency programs available, so I took a few minutes to to speak with Dr. Patel to learn a little more about why she chose to take this path. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed on Monday.  First, I was shocked to hear of the passing of David Bowie, but I also noticed that along with this news, there were several stories about his iconic eye appearance.  I had always been told, and always believed, that David Bowie’s unusual eye appearance was due to heterochromia iridis…

I guess I was wrong! After reading a few of these articles, I found that the real reason David Bowie’s eyes appeared to be different colors was because he had anisocoria! Did you know that? Or had you also been duped into believing he had heterochromia?!

After my blog post last week about The Top 6 Essential Apps for Optometry, I received several suggestions for additional apps that other optometrists regularly use in practice. I decided that there were enough great recommendations that I would do a Part 2 to the prior article so that you all could benefit from the great information that I received from our fellow colleagues! Enjoy!

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss and blindness in Americans who are of retirement age. Studies have shown that approximately one in ten individuals in their 50s will display some retinal changes indicative of AMD, and about one in three people in their 70s will show observable AMD changes.

Approximately 20% of those who develop the early and intermediate form of AMD will progress to an advanced disease stage with loss of vision as they age, but the risk for progression is very difficult to predict. This advanced disease can be characterized by dry geographic atrophy (30% of advanced disease cases) or wet choroidal neovascularization (70% of individuals with advanced disease). 

It’s amazing to think about how much we use our smart phones and tablets in our daily lives for communication and entertainment, but they can also be super handy and helpful in our clinical practice!

You’ve all heard the phrase “There’s an app for that!” and I am here to tell you that this absolutely also applies to eye care. Below are what I believe to be the essential apps that all optometry students and optometrists should have and utilize to make our lives easier and more efficient!

No more leaving the exam room to dig up old books for reference!