Comments on: Academic quality of incoming ophthalmology residents in India: Concerns for the future

Dear Editor,

We read the article by Ozair et al.,[1] and we were extremely happy and overwhelmed to see the authors touching on the most sensitive and vital topics in ophthalmology training in our country. After reading this article in the current issue of IJO (October 2020), we could not resist our self to share our extremely satisfying experience of choosing ophthalmology as a career. We hope that this article will be immensely helpful for all the aspirants who have achieved top ranks in recent exams and are hesitant in choosing ophthalmology as a career.

As correctly pointed out by the authors that top AIRs have continued to ignore ophthalmology since NEET 2017[2] and the same trend was seen in earlier years too. Me and my wife were AIR DNB 1981 and 2014 during NEET PG 2015, and we choose Aravind Eye Hospital, Pondicherry for our residency training. Most of the top institutes like Sankara Netralaya, Chennai, LVPEI Hyderabad, and Bhuvneshwar and Aravind Coimbatore were filled by that time. We took a bold step of choosing DNB over MS (comparing the pass rates and pattern of training), and we consider ourselves extremely lucky to be trained in one of the best Ophthalmology training institutes. Ophthalmology as a branch is a perfect mix of clinical and surgical exposure. In the top notch institutes like AIIMS Delhi, PGI Chandigarh, MAMC Delhi, KGMC Lucknow, Sankara Netralaya Chennai, LVPEI Hyderabad and Bhuvneshwar, and Aravind Eye Care System (seven tertiary eye care institutes), the training pattern is very rigorous with perfect orientation. These institutes offer regular academic lectures, surgical training from the beginning, research orientation, and perfect thesis guidance. This is very much evident by the quality of candidates passing out each year from these institutes.[3]

The quality of incoming residents can further be enhanced by conducting regular Continuing Medical Education (CME's), Webinars, and Conferences under the preview of All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) and also the Youth Ophthalmic Society of India (YOSI). The All India Ophthalmic Conference can also have additional small sessions for undergraduates aspiring for Ophthalmology career in future. They should be given an insight into residency curriculum, opportunities for fellowship[4] in India and overseas the advantage of no entrance and exit exam for fellowship training, NEET SS exam and MCh opportunity at PGI, Chandigarh, futures prospects like ICO exams, the FAICO exam, FRCS, MRCS, MRCOphth exam, etc. The recent induction of AIOS exchange program with Singapore National Eye Centre in uvea, retina, and neuro-ophthalmology and also the travel grants opportunities by AIOS and YOSI will also encourage and motivate the incoming candidates and definitely improve the quality.

The misconception of ophthalmology being a saturated speciality can be easily erased by targeting the focussed candidates and some extra coordinated efforts in near future. In a nutshell, ophthalmology is a perfect mix of clinical exposure, surgical hands on, research opportunities, balanced lifestyle, job satisfaction, and one of the most rewarding branches when it comes to patients care.

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Conflicts of interest

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