August 2022 Edition

This months’ newsletter features the following topics:

• Teaching Skills for Ophthalmic Educators Online Series – Module 14: How to Teach Using Social Media
   
• AAO 2022: Ophthalmic Educators Workshop: Optimizing Your Surgical Curriculum
   
• Teaching the Trainers Workshops at the 9th Annual Scientific Congress of the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) 2022
   
• International Direct Observation of Clinical Skills (iDOCS)
   
• Recap: Reddit Ask Me Anything
   
• This Month’s Resources

For more information on these topics and to register for any of the courses, please click on the download link:

Wills Eye Hospital and the University of Toronto are excited to bring you the next installment of the Cornea Surgical Video Learning Series

Date:  Thursday Sept 22nd 2022

Time:  1930 -2100 EDT

Co-moderated by Professor Sadeer Hannush (Wills Eye Hospital) and Professor Allan Slomovic (University of Toronto).

Keynote Presentation:
Soosan Jacob, MS, FRCS, DNB
Director and Chief, Dr Agarwal’s Refractive and Cornea Foundation

Guest panelists
David Rootman, MD FRCSC and Neera Singal, MD FRCSC (University of Toronto)
Christopher Rapuano, MD and Irv Raber, MD FRCSC (Wills Eye Hospital)

Surgery Case Presentations:
Shai Gendler, MD (University of Toronto) 
Patrick Burbano, MD (Wills Eye Hospital)

Register in advance for this webinar:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The evening will as usual be recorded and placed online for viewing.

CME credits are available for the following:
· Royal College Maintenance of Certification Section 1: 7.5 hours (1.5 Section 1 hours per session)
· American Medical Association Category 1: 7.5 credits (1.5 Category 1 credits per session)
· European Union for Medical Specialists UEMS-EACCME®: 7.5 credits (1.5 ECMEC credits per session)

The Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at Dalhousie University presents its biennial symposium covering diverse topics in clinical ocular disease and visual neuroscience. The faculty includes world-class leaders in ophthalmology and vision research who will address topics ranging from treatments for inherited blindness to the role of biomechanics in ocular disease.

Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022, 2:00 PM –Sat, 29 Oct 2022, 5:00 PM ADT

Location: University of King’s College, 6350 Coburg Road, Halifax, NS 

Click the link below for more information and to register:

The CMA develops and delivers a fulsome range of accredited continuing professional development programs, designed to help physicians and whole health care teams grow their skills and impact.

One of the most impactful ways to advance health care team’s knowledge is through CMA’s Physician Leadership Institute Team Training. Tailored to your needs and delivered on your timeline, our expert team of faculty will deliver accredited courses that can help take your team’s skills to the next level.

We offer over 30 engaging courses in English and 5 essential courses in French, all aligned to the LEADS in a Caring Environment framework:

• Lead self
• Engage others
• Achieve results
• Develop coalition
• Systems transformation

Courses can be delivered to teams as small as 10 to as large as 40, enabling system and culture-wide change in your organization.

NEW OFFERING – We are also very pleased to let you know about our new self-paced learning program Leadership Essentials – free and accredited courses that can be completed in an hour or less, any time. Whether you are looking to build a leadership foundation or brush up on the fundamentals, these courses can benefit physicians in any specialty or practice. 

The modules include:

• Building self-awareness and personal mastery
• Communicating effectively
• Practical strategies for engaging health care teams
• Foundations of physician wellness

Please feel free to share with your teams or any of your contacts whom you feel may benefit from these offerings.

Learn more and connect with CMA’s Physician Learning advisors:

The 2022 COS Annual Meeting & Exhibition Current Concepts I, II & III presentations are now available for download in our Members Only section. Click on the links below to view the individual talks:

*presentations are in English only

Current Concepts I, Friday June 10th, 2022

Racism Inside and Outside Our Walls

Histopathology of Advanced Micro Surgical Corneal Techniques

Conjunctival Tumors: From Surgery to Topicals to Biologics

Sleep Apnea and the Eye

The Use of Metagenomic Deep Sequencing for Uveitis

Current Concepts II, Saturday June 11th, 2022

Glaucoma

Ocular Regenerative Medicine

Paediatrics

Low Vision Rehabilitation

Current Concepts III, Sunday June 12th, 2022

Retina

Neuro-Ophthalmology

Cataract

Physician Wellness: Reflections on the Challenges and Opportunities

Date: September 12, 2022

Time: 4 p.m. PDT/5 p.m. MDT/6 p.m. CDT/7 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. ADT / 8:30 p.m. NDT

Physicians and healthcare providers face complex challenges that have been amplified by the pandemic and recent global events. These challenges include ongoing workplace stressors, strain on personal relationships and financial stress; and physician wellness is on the line – now more than ever.

Join our expert panel — Dr. Martin Koyle, Hayley Harlock and our own Stephen Hunt — for a candid discussion regarding the challenges the physician community is experiencing related to wellness, relationships and money. The panel will discuss strategies to help mitigate these challenges and strengthen and support the physician community.

You are welcome to comment or ask questions, before and during this session and we will share them with our panel.

To register click here:

Unable to make it? Sign up for the recording here

*This presentation will be in English only.

August 2022

Vision therapy (VT), or behavioural optometry, is a generalized term for behavioural treatments based upon the belief that abnormalities in vision are the underlying cause of learning, neurological and spatial disabilities.

A review of the available literature on these treatments conducted in 2022 by a committee of physicians specializing in pediatric ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmology found that, with the exception of convergence insufficiency, evidence that these therapies are effective is lacking.

Background

Vision therapy is a term used to refer to a spectrum of in-office supervised exercises that aim to improve visual ability and skill. Vision therapy programs are prescribed for a wide and etiologically diverse group of pathological and non-pathological learning, oculomotor, visual and post-traumatic states. These conditions include strabismus, amblyopia, learning/reading disabilities (dyslexia), myopia, and brain injuries such as stroke, concussion, and trauma with visuospatial neglect. Vision therapy remains an uninsured paramedical service.

Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) members have noted a sharp increase in the number of requests to provide an opinion on the effectiveness and validity of prescribed vision therapy programs. These programs can last from several weeks to years and, at times, a lifetime of treatment. The COS Vision Therapy committee feels that additional high-quality evidence-based research must be performed prior to any consideration for public or private insurance coverage.

Read the full position statement here.

The August 2022 CJO is now available online. Here are some of the highlights: 

Resident Perspectives + visual abstract: Our amazing team of residents have summarized 7 articles with a focus on what’s most relevant to ophthalmology learners here in Canada and around the globe, including the article featured in our August visual abstract, Pretreatment with frequent topical betamethasone in Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation.

Review article: Advances in magnetic resonance imaging of orbital disease  

Original research articles:

·        Clinical audit of retinoblastoma management: a retrospective single-institution study

·        Longitudinal assessment of type 3 macular neovascularization using 3D volume-rendering OCTA

• Selective laser trabeculoplasty in steroid-induced and uveitic glaucoma

·        Chalazion: racial risk factors for formation, recurrence, and surgical intervention

·        Challenging the current treatment of residual postoperative ptosis: safety and efficacy of repeat Müller’s muscle conjunctival resection

Research letters, photo essays, and case reports:

·        Bilateral curvilinear chorioretinal streaks [photo essay]

·        Gore-Tex suture exposure following transscleral fixation of an intraocular lens [photo essay]

·        Transplantation of autologous lamellar scleral graft for the treatment of corneal perforation [case report]

·        Experiences from a national webinar with recently matched Canadian ophthalmology residents for medical students [case report]

·        Uveal melanoma presenting as panophthalmitis in the absence of an intraocular mass [correspondence]

Follow the CJO on social media:

Twitter: @CanJOphth

Instagram: @cjo_jco

Facebook: CanJOphth

Canadian Ophthalmology Curriculum Topics & Objectives

This document is the finalized list of curriculum topics and objectives for Canadian undergraduate medical education in ophthalmology. The development of this list was based off  three resources: The 2018 objective list developed by the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology (AUPO) with endorsement from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)¹, the AUPO’s 2009 Ophthalmology Core Knowledge and Skills competencies²,and the Medical Council of Canada’s (MCC) objectives pertaining to ophthalmology³.

After a preliminary list of objectives was made based off the previously mentioned resources, a survey was sent to the members of AUPO asking for expert opinion on each curriculum objective and if they warrant inclusion. Based on this survey, talking points were created and later discussed in a virtual meeting where the list was finalized.

*Urgent and red flag conditions have been denoted with a red Asterix. These warrant urgent referral to an ophthalmologist.

Download the full PDF Document here:

Click on the links below to explore the topics: