Only a few short months ago I walked across the stage with my diploma during graduation from Southern College of Optometry in May. I, like LeBron James, took my so-called talents to South Beach and am now a resident at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. From the moment I started patient care in my second year, I knew I wanted to do a residency in ocular disease. Treating and managing all conditions of the eye is something that is very important to me and something I wanted to pursue further.

Let me first say this: I loved optometry school. The academic environment of getting those really strange and complex patients and then discussing them over lunch or drinks after work was unavoidable to me. I always welcomed it. No matter where I went with my classmates we always ended up talking about our cases. From binocular vision problems to glaucoma to unidentifiable corneal issues, lots of debate, conjecture, and opinions ensued. However, my four years of optometry school were not enough for me. It’s not that I didn’t feel prepared to be working in private practice or at a referral center or in a commercial setting, but my education was not finished. I am greatly appreciative of the knowledge gained while in school, but I was ready to take on more.

Being in residency has been the greatest decision of my optometric career so far. I know it has only been 6 months, but I am certain that this will change my path forever. Every day, I am surrounded by complex and interesting cases from around the globe sent to our hospital to be seen in every subspecialty from glaucoma to neuro-ophthalmology to cornea and refractive surgeries to retina. I get to discuss with other optometry and ophthalmology residents and fellows diagnoses, differentials, treatment plans, alternatives, and follow-up care of a multitude of diseases. I am very fortunate to be in this environment.

Other residencies offer very similar type experiences but in various different fields. It allows you the opportunity to engage in dialogues with other physicians in a clinical setting. You get to see how other doctors think and process information and their respective management styles. By seeing how other doctors have treated patients, I get to shape my own style. It gives you the chance to grow from other people’s experience. You don’t have to carbon copy another doctor unless that is how you want to practice.

Residency, however, is not for everyone. Some people finish school and are ready as soon as their license is signed and mailed to practice optometry. They feel they can manage anyone that walks through their door and I applaud their courage. I am not one of those people. I am confident in my skills taught to me by my institution and my externships, but again, I wanted more.

We as students and residents are not perfect. Nor will we ever be. But these last 5 months have given me the opportunity to perfect how I think I should act as a doctor. I will continue to strive for that on each patient, on each day, in each clinic where I’m working. And my residency has put me on that path.

By: Mark Schaeffer O.D

“It’s not a matter of if genetic testing will become a standard in testing for ocular disease, but WHEN it will become the standard.” – Dr. Jerry Rapp

This month I sat down with Dr. Jerry Rapp, Professor of Biological Sciences at SUNY Optometry College and long time advocate for Optometry. In our interview, Dr. Rapp calls attention to the long overdue issue of “The Genetic Model” in optometry and the steps that need to be taken to make genetic testing part and parcel of optometric care. We covered everything from the benefits of performing a genetic analysis on patients with potential ocular disease and also why optometry has yet to embrace this type of clinical care when we are more than capable.

Dr. Rapp has one warning and that is “…it’s not a matter of if genetic testing will become a standard in testing for ocular disease but, WHEN it will become the standard. With other health care physicians currently doing a genetic analysis on their patients, it is optometry’s turn to embrace this care. If we decide to address this issue 5 years from now, you can guarantee it will be a costly uphill battle once we realize we were late to the party. Dr. Rapp believes that we should take control today and avoid a future painstaking fight to incorporate genetic testing into optometry.

Here is the caveat; if the STUDENTS do not come together and stand united this will not happen. We are the seeds that create the fruit we know as optometry and that means that bringing genetic testing to Optometry starts with us, not the O.D’s already in practice. If we make our voices heard, schools and organizations will listen and implement courses in our curriculum that will help us to master this area of care. Once we are armed with the knowledge, we are just steps away from practicing the genetic model in optometry.

So who is with us? Support the cause here at Change.org and lets make this a grassroots movement!

Even if genetic testing and ocular disease is not in your personal future as an optometrist it is still VERY important to support the positive growth of your profession. So please support this cause so we can show optometry schools and organizations that students care about the growth of optometry. We will keep all participants updated as this movement becomes a reality.

Support the cause here at Change.org

Matthew Geller
Founder & Senior Editor; OptometryStudents.com
SUNY College of Optometry 2013

This month’s “NBEO Part 1 Article” is brought to you thanks to the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA). Both behind the scenes and at every school of Optometry, the AOSA is always working hard to ensure that Optometry is moving in the right direction for us students. They are the voice for the students and their trustee’s work hard to enrich our 4 years of optometry school providing us with direction and a political voice. I encourage everyone to not only read this article that the AOSA has worked hard to create but to get involved with the AOSA at your optometry school. – Matt Geller, Founder & Senior Editor; OptometryStudents.com

Q: What is tested on Part I of boards?

A: Part I will consist of a blend of items from the National Board’s old Basic Science  exam, and items from the National Board’s old Clinical Science exam. The Clinical Science items shifting to ABS are related to epidemiology/history/symptoms/signs, clinical testing, and diagnosis/pathophysiology. Most ABS items will have the requirement of referencing a clinical condition, either explicitly or implicitly.

Q: What is the general format for Part I of boards?

A: Part I-ABS contains both single-response and multiple-response multiple choice items. Items are scored as completely correct or incorrect. There is NO partial credit.  The vast majority of the items (approximately 85%) are traditional multiple choice items, which consist of a stem (a question or an incomplete statement) followed by three to five options, one of which is the correct or best response.

Approximately 15% of the items are multiple response (MR) items, which consist of a stem followed by four to seven options. An MR item will have two to four correct options and the candidate is required to select ALL of the appropriate options in order to get the item correct. The stem of the MR item indicates how many of the options are required. For example, if there are three correct options, the phrase (SELECT 3) will appear in the stem.

Q: When do we take NBEO Part II?

A: Student candidates must be in the spring of their third academic year to take the new Part I exam. There will be three opportunities to sit for Part I prior to graduation.

Q: How long is the exam?

A: The ABS examination will be four sessions in length, each session 3½ hours long containing 125 items, for a total of 500 items.

Q: How much is the Part I exam?
A: $625 (Hand-verification is an extra $120)

Q. When will I know my score for Part I?
A: Scores will be released no later than May 09, 2012

Q: Can you give me any specifics on the types of items?
A: According to the NBEO website, the exam will be broken down as follows:

Anatomy (Gross, neuroanatomy, Histology, & Development) 12-18%
Biochemistry/Physiology: 10-14%
Immunology/Microbiology/Pathology: 22-30%
Optics (Geometrical, physical, ophthalmic, & physiological): 31-35%
Pharmacology: 11-17%

*Please see the NBEO Website for a more detailed topic outline

Q: Are the items cases going to be presented in a straightforward manner, or will they try to trick us with conflicting exam findings?

A: Some test items refer to patients or subjects with non-normal conditions. Unless the test item provides information suggestive of an underlying non-normal condition, candidates should assume that the referenced patient is normal.

Q: How will pharmaceutical agents be referred to on the exam?

A: On the Applied Basic Science (ABS) examination, drugs are referenced only by generic name. However, to help those candidates who may be more familiar with the trade names of drugs than with the generic names, a list of generic drugs and their trade name equivalents will be printed on the inside front cover of the test booklets. Candidates should note that the list includes only those drugs referenced on the exam that have commonly used trade names. Candidates should also note that the list includes drugs used on other National Board exams; therefore, significantly more drugs appear on the list than actually appear on the ABS exam.

December 9th 2012 | WORCESTER – Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has announced the hiring of Dr. Shilpa J. Register as Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Dr. Jeanette M. Sewell as Associate Dean for Clinical Programs in the College’s School of Optometry. Both plan to be on-site January 3, 2012 as the College works to initiate its new Optometry program.

Dr. Register will be responsible for faculty, curriculum and outcomes assessment, while Dr. Sewell will oversee the College’s Eye and Vision Center, as well as the integration of clinical education into the Doctor of Optometry (OD) program.

“Our program is extremely fortunate to have Drs. Register and Sewell on board,” said Dr. Lesley Walls, Founding Dean of the MCPHS School of Optometry.“Both are extremely bright, highly qualified and have long demonstrated their commitment to optometric education and to the students and patients we serve.”

Dr. Register received her OD and MS from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and expects to receive her PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology in March 2012.  She has been in academia since 2004, as well as having been in private practice. Dr. Register is currently an elected member of the Board of the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education and has served on a number of other professional organizations, including the American Academy of Optometry, the American Optometric Association, the American Board of Optometry and the National Board of Examiners in Optometry.

Dr. Sewell comes to MCPHS from the New England College of Optometry (NECO), where she is currently Instructor of Record for Clinical Programs, Assistant Director of Residencies and Attending Optometrist in the New England Eye Institute. Dr. Sewell received her OD degree from NECO, where she was the valedictorian of her class. Dr. Sewell has extensive experience managing academic and private clinical operations.  She served for more than 25 years as the Director of Eye Care Services at the Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury, MA. During her tenure at NECO, she served as Interim Associate Dean of Students, Chair of the Clinical Teaching Quality Assurance Committee and in many teaching roles. Dr. Sewell has served in various capacities in the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, the American Optometric Association and the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists.

This is an official press release courtesy of Michael Ratty, Director of Communications at MCPHS

Those of us who are fortunate enough to have invested in an iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch® understand the efficiency and capacity of these incredible devices. They have transformed how we communicate and share information in our everyday, hectic lives. The familiar phrase “there’s an app for that” also applies to us ODs and future ODs, with an abundance of eye-related applications for our treasured hand-held gadgets. There are over 200,000 apps available in iTunes, and to filter out what is OD applicable is not only time consuming, but can be overwhelming to say the least. Fear not my friends, as I have scoured iTunes™ on your behalf! Many hours and iTunes™ credits later, I have generated a list of apps that I use and have found incredibly helpful with clinical rounds, study groups, and personal education.

1. Parks 3-step (Cost: $0.99)

Utilizing your device’s built-in gyroscope and accelerometer, this app will be able to predict the under-acting extraocular muscle in two swift movements! This a very quick and accurate way of performing the Parks 3-step test without diagrams. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

2. ICD-9 (with 2012 codes) (Cost: $0.99)

Highly rated and inexpensive compared to other apps with similar content. This app has complete offline access to more than17,500 codes with free updates. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

3. Optics Clinical Calculator (Cost: $4.99)

Includes streamlined, intuitive access to calculators used daily in prescribing lenses and understanding optics. Base curves, obliquely crossed cylinders, slab-off and much more are made easy with this efficient app. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®

4. Medical Lab Tests (Cost: $2.99)

Can you recall the normal value of a hematocrit or the reference value for amylase? This application will help you! Covers the most common laboratory tests and their interpretation. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

5. Neurology i-pocketcards (Cost: $3.99)

Concise tables that outline ocular movement disorders, ocular muscle innervations, cranial nerves, and much more. This is an excellent reference for student clinicians and those preparing for National Boards. Compatible with iPad®, and iPhone®.

6. iMedsXL (Cost: $3.99)

Over 7,300 FDA-approved medications and is the only app to provide full prescribing information. The advantage to this app is its offline access search via drug name or drug class, including contraindications. Compatible with iPad®.

7. Eponyms for students (Cost: FREE for the student version)

What’s an eponym you ask? It is the name of a person or thing, real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item is named. For example, our anatomy and clinical disease courses introduced us to eponyms such as Usher’s Syndrome and Addison’s disease. This app gives a short description of more than 1,700 common and obscure medical eponyms. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

8. Ophthalmology i-pocketcards (Cost $4.99)

Another quick reference guide for the student clinician including eye anatomy, management of refractive errors, images to test for color blindness, and much more.  Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

9. EyeDock (Cost: FREE but requires an EyeDock membership)

Created by Todd M. Zarwell, OD, it is a companion app to eyedock.com, a website for eye care professionals. The EyeDock app contains a regularly updated database for contact lens fitting and ophthalmic medications. Dr. Zarwell has been kind to offer free membership for eyedock.com to optometry students and institutions for the duration of your attendance. For more information send a message to admin@eyedock.com or contact your school’s computer informatics department if a membership to eyedock.com is currently in effect.

10. Eye Handbook (Cost: FREE)

My absolute favorite optometry app and it’s free! With a pharmacopoeia, equipment reference, testing, coding, and media center for patient education, it is the most frequently used app on my iPad®. There are also excellent in-app purchases to add such as information for multifocal IOLs, punctal plugs, and uveitis. Compatible with iPad®, iPhone® or iPod touch®.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Apple Inc.™ or its affiliates.  Furthermore, the author of this article is not monetarily compensated by Apple Inc.™, its affiliates, or through the promotion of the products listed herein. The author has no financial interests or investments in the listed applications, and has not participated in the creation of the applications. All rights belong to the authors and Apple Inc.™.  Readers of this article should not rely solely on the listed applications in diagnosing or treating a condition. The author of this article is basing their recommendation on their personal experience, and does not hold themselves to be an expert in the use or appropriateness of each item.

You may have started preparing for NBEO Part I boards, but have you remembered to register for it? In order to take Part I of NBEO in March 2012, you need to create a username and register on the website: www.optometry.org. The process requires you to fill in identification information and a payment method to cover the cost of the exam at $625.00. Choose the appropriate testing location and to what states you would like your scores to be released to, and you will officially be registered to take the exam.

Here are some important date deadlines:

Registration deadline – 1/17/2012
Withdrawal deadline – 2/1/2012

Registering for boards is the easy part, studying for boards can be difficult. Be sure to look for the NBEO articles/study guide resources available on optometrystudents.com for guidance and direction.

Click here for all of the OptometryStudents articles on boards.

I wanted to thank every fan and supporter of OptometryStudents.com for their commitment and support of the website. I sincerely hope that the content posted is valuable and insightful. Additionally I want to thank all of the students and O.D’s contributors, without you OptometryStudents.com would not be where it is today. I extend my deepest gratitude to the select few students who helped the site come alive and I know that your continued contributions to the website will help you achieve your long term optometry goals and much more.

Lastly and most importantly, I want everyone to know that OptometryStudents.com is dedicated to making sure that Optometry continues in positive direction and remains the great profession that it is.

In 2011…

6,034 people visited OS on their mobile phone

 6 NBEO Study Guides were posted to help students ace their board exam – here

   58 Articles were written by optometry students all across the United States – here

30 Student writers from 11 different optometry schools wrote articles

 47 News Stories were posted thanks to content coordinator Antonio Chirumbolo – here

9 Scholarship Alerts were posted helping students pay for optometry school – here

 42 Clinical Pearls were posted with knowledge to help you treat patients – here

 9 Video Interviews were filmed showcasing OD’s and students – here

10 Optometry Doctors contributed content to the website

 12% of the hits came from outside the United States of America

 1,025 people are fans of OptometryStudents.com on Facebook – here

 331 people follow OptometryStudents.com on Twitter – here

Thanks for being a part of OptometryStudents.com and have a happy 2012!

Sincerely,
Matthew Geller
Founder & Senior Editor OptometryStudents.com
SUNY 2013 

Taking the Boards Part I can be a daunting task. However, if you prepare for it in an efficient and intelligent manner, not only will you pass the exam, but you might even be surprised at how well you did. Here is a flashcard strategy that I have personally used which, if followed, will ensure your success:

Flashcards! Flashcards! Flashcards! You may not be a flashcard kind-of-person, but, believe me, it’s the only way to succeed. The Boards is rife with trivia – small facts that are nearly impossible to memorize entirely. But flashcards will help. They are the only way to retain such an enormous amount of information in such a small amount of time. Here are my additional tips to utilizing flashcards more effectively:

1) Type them up: Don’t try to write them out on index cards. That will take up too much time. Instead, use a Word Document. Typing them on a computer is just as effective and much faster. Remember though to put them in a Question-Answer format. In other words, write the question first and then put the answer underneath it. Later, when you print out your “flashcards”, you can use a blank piece of paper to cover the answers as you go.

2) Have friends help: There is too much material to cover by yourself, so get into groups and divide the work. Since you’re typing your flashcards on a Word Document anyway, it’s easy to print out multiple copies for everyone to share.

3) Put a checkmark next to the questions you get wrong: This is an effective way to separate the material you know from the material you don’t know. In other words, when you run through the questions a second time, just skip the ones you know and focus on the questions you don’t know (i.e. the questions with a checkmark next to them). Then, if you happen to get those questions correct, erase the checkmark. Keep doing this until all the checkmarks are erased. You will be amazed at how quickly they disappear and at how much material you actually retain. But don’t get discouraged early on. In the beginning, I had 90% of my questions marked. Towards the end, it got down to about 10%. This will make you feel very confident come test day.

Flashcards are not only the most efficient and effective way to memorize large amounts of material, but they will also help you to prepare for the exam format. In other words, by studying in a “Question – Answer” mode, you will become better prepared to take a “Question – Answer” test. Plus, after months of going through flashcard after flashcard, your endurance will increase. This gives you an edge when taking a two day exam!

I hope this article gives you sound, practical advice on how best to prepare for the Boards. Everybody is different, and what may work for one person may not work for you. However, as long as you study hard and do it in an efficient manner, everything will pay off. And then you’re a fourth year!

Sincerely,

Mike Montenare SUNY 2012

As the demand to provide care to these individuals increases, it is critical that current students and optometrists become familiar with the presenting visual symptoms these patients posses as well as the methods to remediate these problems. Dr. Ciuffreda has contributed a lot of literature to the topic of mild traumatic brain injury such as his four-tiered approach model in his recent publication Conceptual Model of Optometric Vision Care in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (click to download) and provided an insight into these patients in our discussion.

Tune in to hear what Dr. Ciuffreda had to say about his own motivation to pursue a career in optometry, where he thinks the profession has been and the direction it is going, and how vision therapy is such an important tool in the remediation of visual dysfunction in various patients including those with mild traumatic brain injury.

Watch it in HD here instead – Click Here

59 year old black female presents for follow up of trauma OD at age 9.  Pt reports being hit in the right eye with a rock.  History regarding the trauma is very vague and non specific; pt recalls losing vision and was told she must be followed yearly to monitor ”possible progression of a scar” secondary to the trauma.  The rest of the history, externals  and refraction were unremarkable.  Dilated SLE revealed rosette cataract OD, which was documented with slit lamp camera to monitor future progression.

Some background information regarding rosette cataracts:

Rosette cataracts are commonly characterized as flower peddles or feathery shaped opacities resulting from blunt trauma to the eye.  Opacities can appear immediately following the trauma or months to years later.   Vision loss is less likely when the capsule remains intact (capsule is not ruptured during the trauma) and if the opacity is not significantly dense. Most commonly, these opacities remain stationary and permanent in size and density However, the presence of a rosette cataract may accelerate normal age related cataract formation.

When managing any patient following trauma, a well documented and detailed history is important.  Pertinent information includes mechanism of injury, past ocular and medical history, and any visual complaints.  This information often guides testing modalities, potential treatment options and possible sequelae.