Mid to late career ophthalmologist. After months of thinking about it, I bit the bullet and gave up surgery. It feels good.

Advice for new tech?

Hello,

I just started at a tech position at a busy ophthalmology clinic a month ago. It’s a bit of a switch, I’m learning how to use an EMR system for the first time, and there’s some new machinery to get used to. I find where I’m struggling the most is my work ups. Obviously every visit I need to go over current medications(which are more than often lengthy), and do testing as well. Im trying to cut my times down to 18 minutes per work up for established patients and 30 minutes for new patients. I don’t chat with them, the only subject is their medical history and current eye related issues and even there I try not to go down a rabbit hole. It’s been a learning curve but I’m suffering from extreme anxiety and forgetfulness. The work environment is OK. I just want to perform well so as to not slow anything down but I’m struggling. I take notes all the time so I can look back and check if a certain exam needs something, but this doesn’t seem to be helping. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

A 13-year-old boy presented with poor vision in the right eye since early childhood and esotropia noted at around 3 years of age. The right eye was not microphthalmic, with an axial length of 25.90 mm. Anterior-segment photography revealed tree-like vessels in the corneal stroma (A). Fundus examination, with limited image clarity likely due to vitreous abnormalities, showed a fibrovascular membrane anterior to the optic disc and peripapillary chorioretinal atrophy (B). Corneal fluorescein angiography demonstrated filling of these vessels beginning approximately 15 seconds after intravenous injection of fluorescein sodium, without leakage (C). Ultrasound biomicroscopy localized the vessels to the deep corneal stroma (D). These findings suggest anomalous corneal vessels in association with persistent fetal vasculature, distinct from typical corneal neovascularization.

From “Tree-like Corneal Anomalous Vessels in a Patient with Persistent Fetal Vasculature” by Yaling Liu, PhD, Jiannan Tang, PhD, Guoming Zhang, PhD. Published by Ophthalmology online on April 28, 2026.

Read: https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(26)00245-9/fulltext00245-9/fulltext)

I’m an ophthalmology resident, and I found that I like the G4 flange less over flanged. Would any US-based physician be interested to trade? (Volk only)

Hey! I'd love some feedback from anyone who has hired part-time MDs.

We're a solo specialist practice in a VHCOL area, and this is the first time I'll be bringing on another practitioner. I want to add a physician one day a week (during my OR day). He's fellowship trained in a subspecialty I also practice. He has another part-time job elsewhere and wants to keep it for now. If it works out for both of us, I'd like to expand the relationship down the road.

What I'm thinking to start:

• 1099
• Guaranteed daily rate. He keeps it no matter what, and I don't claw it back from a good quarter later
• Plus a percentage of his professional collections, squared up quarterly, whichever is higher
• Drug costs come out before the percentage is calculated
• We look at the agreement part way through the first year to make sure it's working for everyone
• I handle credentialing

The office is already open and staffed that day, so he doesn't cost me much to add. Rough math puts breakeven ~~ 7 to 9 patients a day.

Questions:

1. What percentage do people actually pay a part-time doc who isn't bringing his own patients? I've heard 30 to 50%. Trying to figure out where in that range is reasonable.
2. What's a typical minimum day rate for something like this?
3. 1099 or W2 to start? If we expand the arrangement I imagine we'd go W2 at some point, but is there a downside to starting on 1099?
4. Post-op visits in the global period pay nothing. I plan to keep seeing my own post-ops, but if some end up on his schedule, how do others handle paying him for that time?
5. Anything else I'm missing, or pitfalls to watch for? I want everyone happy with this and I'd like to put my best foot forward.

All thoughts appreciated! Thank you

I've noticed the occasional fellow at our program in the past few years has been filled by an IMG trying to get their 4 years for independent practice. Come graduation you hear of their next fellowship. Our IMG retina fellow ended up matching at an oculoplastics fellowship. Being told how competitive both these fellowships are, I'm just curious if fellowships are much more indifferent to USMD vs IMG or if the competitiveness barrier is not as high as is said?

Ophthalmology Fellowships Post CCT

Hi guys,

I'm currently an ophthalmology resident in the UK. Could anyone provide advice on applying for ophthalmology fellowships post CCT in the UK?

For ST1 the criteria was clear and plenty of guidelines/courses. However for fellowships post CCT, there is sparse information.

My questions would be:

•What components are involved? (CV - what things, surgical logbook, personal statement, references, interview?) Are these scored based on the institution's individual criteria?

•How do people prepare for this - are there courses, or networking with seniors/consultants, visiting the desired institute?

•What would a competitive application look like?

Would be really grateful for any advice!

Thank you.

Hi! I'm a medicine undergraduate and I'm struggling to understand squint. This one particular question troubles me, if Herring's law provides equal innervation to both eyes, then how is a phoria non manifest, I feel like the eye which has the phoria needs more stimulus to be in the primary position?

Please help me out

I’m an ophthalmologist in private practice, and I wanted to share something I’ve been working on.

Ophthalmology—and medicine more broadly—doesn’t have a strong business-focused community for practice owners. Dentistry does this much better, with communities and conferences centered around growth, operations, and ownership.

We have excellent clinical societies where we can debate eye drops or PanOptix vs. Envy, but very few places to openly discuss the actual business of running a practice.

Topics include cataract reimbursement, OBS vs. ASC, OD comanagement, payroll, billing, office manager compensation, vendor experiences, and staying independent as private equity continues to consolidate the market.

For context, I serve on the YES Committee at ASCRS and the YO Committee at AAO. Business topics do come up, but formal panels aren’t really designed for sharing real numbers or candid vendor opinions.
That’s why this community is private and members are verified.

It’s primarily for solo and small-group owners, physicians planning to start a practice, and doctors looking to transition out of employment or PE. Interested residents are welcome on a case-by-case basis.

If this sounds useful, feel free to DM me.

Hi everyone,

I’m a doctor and one of the people building Diagnosica, an interactive clinical case simulator designed to make case practice feel closer to actually managing a patient rather than answering another MCQ.

You take the history, perform examinations, choose which investigations to order, review the actual results and imaging, build your differential, and decide what you would do next.

One thing we’re especially interested in is making the investigation and imaging side genuinely useful, rather than simply showing the learner a written interpretation. Given how important visual interpretation and clinical decision-making are in ophthalmology, I thought this community could give us particularly useful feedback.

I’d genuinely appreciate an honest review from colleagues here. If something feels unrealistic, confusing, too easy, or simply not useful, I’d much rather hear that so we can improve it.

Try the app (App store / Google store)

Would especially love to hear what you’d want from this kind of simulator for it to be genuinely useful in clinical training.

We are told the ORA intraoperative interferometer must be paired to a specific surgical microscope. The ORA is optically independent of the scope. It doesn't even need a microscope to operate except as a stand to hold it. Interchanging ORAs and scopes yield the same result. This requirement is a remnant of the FDA regulatory process and the device's IFU and interchanging is considered off label use.

The Loloma Foundation’s mission is to provide sustainable medical, dental and infrastructure support to rural communities in the South Pacific who would otherwise have no access to basic healthcare.

It has been quite a journey. For twenty-five years Loloma Foundation volunteers have been bringing medical, dental and humanitarian aid to the less fortunate people of the island nations of the South Pacific. The numbers are staggering:

•$53M worth of medication, dental and medical supplies and equipment to Fiji     and the Solomon Islands

•Organized and implemented 84 medical/dental missions in 172 Fijian and Solomon Island villages

•124,374 patients have been treated by our volunteer physicians

•24,263 dental and prosthodontia patients have been seen and treated

•Over 1427 surgeries including Plastics, OB/GYN, Eye, General, Hand, ENT

We have planned to have four different surgery teams over 4 weeks at Savusavu Hospital in Fiji this May and June.

Cataract surgery in two rotations is to be Sunday, May 16-May 24 and May 23-May 31

If you have interest, please contact us at (http://www.lolomafoundation.org) 

I’m an ophthalmic assistant who works with Valeda photobiomodulation, and I’m interested in hearing perspectives from retina specialists outside of my workplace. I am especially curious about patient selection.

Do you support using Valeda for dry AMD? Why or why not?

I’m especially curious about patients with a history of wet/neovascular AMD that is currently inactive. Would you consider them appropriate candidates for PBM, or would you generally stick closer to the population studied in the LIGHTSITE trials?

Not looking for patient-specific medical advice—just genuinely interested in how different retina specialists view the treatment and evidence. Thank u so much ☺️

Finishing my residency in india, will be planning for fellowships in india as well as other countries like USA. Need guidance for the understanding this process of state licensing and best fellowship programs taking Indian ophthalmologist for training.
PS - i have 2 year of bond service in my state, this time I’m using for step 1 and 2 CK and getting my ECFMG certification if things go according to the plan and build CV.
Consider it as an aspiration i have to learn the best in the world

in med school right now and currently debating whether I want to pursue ophthalmology or radiology. my med school has a home program for both of these specialties. i absolutely love ophthalmology, but i really hate the fact that the pay is almost equivalent to how much some FM doctors make. i really wish money was never a factor, but it's still one to consider. my goal is to volunteer abroad and provide treatment to those without proper healthcare access in other countries one day, and although radiology is very appealing, i'm not sure if it's very applicable in that realm since it's not very hands-on (if they do exist, please lmk). ophthalmology almost seems like the perfect specialty because the patient population is ideal b/c people value their vision so much so their grateful for your work, the surgeries aren't that dirty compared to specialties like OB/GYN, and the lifestyle is also pretty good. I would like some advice on this decision. obviously both specialties are very competitive, and I'm aware of that.

Looking to hire an ophthalmology hospitalist in Oklahoma City. Let me know if you're interested!

Experience level: Open to candidates straight out of residency

Board-certified or board-eligible Ophthalmologist

Currently practicing in the U.S. or eligible for U.S. licensure

Comfortable with inpatient and emergency ophthalmic care

Sign-on bonus: $25,000

Starting range: ~$250,000-$400,00 (higher earning potential with surgical volume)

Patients per day: varies

New patients: 5–10 per day

Follow-ups: 2–4 per day

Total daily census: Approximately 15–25 patients

Hours / schedule: Current schedule: Monday–Friday

Day structure:

~½ day seeing patients in the ER

~½ day clinical work and/or surgery

Schedule flexibility:

Open to weekend coverage if desired

4x10s option available

Willing to adjust schedule based on provider preference

No on call

Edited to add link

https://www.careermd.com/listing/ophthalmology/290525049

I currently work at a glass store as an optometric technician and did not think I would last in it very long. It’s been 2 1/2 years now. I would like to move forward into becoming an ophthalmolic technician, but I’m not sure if I have the skill set yet to move forward or even apply for a position. I’m wondering if anyone has ever made this transition and was it easy?

A 55-year-old man presented with progressive vision loss in the right eye (OD). Best-corrected visual acuity was 20/400 OD and 20/20 in the left eye. Anterior-segment examination revealed numerous superficial, centrally located brown deposits OD (A), raising concern for primary corneal melanoma. After fluorescein staining, a retained contact lens with pigmented deposits was identified and removed (B). Microscopic evaluation revealed lightly pigmented reflective fungi on the lens surface (arrows) and penetrating the lens (arrowheads), associated with pigmentation of the lens (asterisk) (C; unstained preparation, ×400). Periodic acid-Schiff stain highlighted fungi (D; ×400).

From “Pigmented Fungal Colonization of Contact Lens Mimicking Corneal Melanoma” by Lily C. Farrell, MD, Bela J. Parekh, MD, Tatyana Milman, MD. Published by Ophthalmology online on March 19, 2026.

Read: https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(26)00128-4/fulltext00128-4/fulltext)

I'm curious what other medical offices do. We record our calls, but obviously no one has time to sit there and listen to hours of them. We use weave for our phone system, and they just added this and it codes ours calls. Does anyone actually go back and review calls with staff for training? If so, has it been helpful?

Hi All,

I just released a free indirect/BIO simulator.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dca6SkyCOYG/

It uses the gyroscope of the iPhone to simulate looking at a retina through a 20 diopter lens.

The idea is to practice the 'upside and backwards' orientation that is always challenging to get used to.

Its free and live:
1. you can download it at MyCallBag.com.
2. close the paywall with the top right button
3. open the 'Surgery Simulator'

Please let me know what you think and if you have ideas to make it more realistic/useful!

Reason: our program generously bought each resident a subscription but it was too late as I have done a couple hundred questions so far and don't feel like repeating them at this point. Price: $250. Please DM if interested. First come first served.