Resident Training

The Ophthalmology Residency Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center is a three-year course of study, with four residents accepted annually.  Training takes place on the two campuses of the Montefiore Medical Center encompassing the Weiler Hospital, Jacobi Hospital and the College Eye Institute on the East Campus, and the Sol and Evelyn Henkind Eye Institute, the Laser Clinic and the General Eye Clinic on the West Campus in New York City.

The Resident Training Program focuses on general ophthalmic outpatient care, inpatient consultation, subspecialty tertiary care and ophthalmic laser and surgical skills. Residents rotate through well-supervised outpatient facilities and see inpatient consultations on both campuses.

Subspecialty training begins in the first year and eventually includes rotations in ophthalmic pathology, cornea and external diseases, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, oculo-plastic surgery, contact lenses, low vision, neuro-ophthalmology, glaucoma and retina and vitreous disorders. An educational program in each of these subspecialty fields is incorporated into the Department’s in-house basic science and clinical ophthalmology course.

Residents attend an almost daily schedule pf conferences and seminars.  Grand Rounds or a morbidity conference are held weekly.  Eye pathology, retina, pediatric ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmology lectures are held twice a month and can be viewed by teleconferencing at peripheral sites.  Friday afternoons are reserved for a didactic program and review of patient management problems with Dr. Kim Landzberg, assistant professor and glaucoma specialist.  Current ophthalmic and medical literature is discussed in the monthly journal club.

Supplemental educational experience is gained by attendance of the Greater New York Ophthalmology Basic Science and Clinical Lecture Series, offered one evening per week throughout the academic year. All of the ophthalmology training programs in the metropolitan area have joined to sponsor this program of lectures, delivered by recognized experts in neuro-ophthalmology, pathology, retina, cornea and external disease, glaucoma and pediatrics.

The Department joins several other training programs in joint conferences and city-wide educational forums to enrich the resident’s depth of knowledge and experience.  Courses in ethics, the psychological aspects of blindness and career planning are provided by the Department on alternate years.  Residents are invited to the New York Academy of Medicine, which sponsors a monthly symposium on controversial and current topics in ophthalmology.

Residents are supervised on an ongoing basis. Faculty members meet with individual residents after each rotation to review the resident’s progress, knowledge and aptitude. Residents also meet formally with the faculty to critique the quality of their educational experience.

Cornea and External Disease Services
Rotation through the Cornea and External Disease Service begins in the first year with Dr. Kim. During this rotation, emphasis is placed on diagnostic techniques, differential diagnoses of the ocular inflammation and management of the dry eye, corneal transplant and corneal ulcer patients. Residents also gain experience in fitting hard and soft contact lenses and contact lens-related disorders.

Dr. Kim coordinates surgical training for residents in the new Lion’s Microsurgical Teaching Center before the residents are introduced to surgery on patients. 
Junior and senior residents learn surgical techniques for the anterior segment, including corneal transplantation, phacoemulsification, pterygium surgery, and reconstruction techniques. Residents are also trained in kerato-refractive surgery utilizing the state-of-the-art excimer laser.

Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Service
Second-year residents spend weekly sessions with Dr. Gurland, and one or two sessions with Wendy Fingerhut, our certified orthoptist, in an eight week rotation. An additional half-day session is held at the Jacobi Eye Clinic. Residents attend bimonthly clinics at the Kennedy Center for Development Disabilities and assist in the evaluation of learning disabled and neurologically impaired children. Several part-time and voluntary attendings supervise pediatric clinics at the affiliated teaching institutions.

Residents have the opportunity to participate in clinical research projects conducted by the service. Residents on this service also partake in the evaluation and management of neuro-ophthalmic disease under the supervision of Dr. Wertenbaker.

Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Service
Clinical training in Oculoplastic Surgery begins in the second year with outpatient clinics for pre-operative and post-operative patients on both campuses. Residents perform or assist on 50-60 surgical cases in their third year and join the Facial Trauma Team for multi-service procedures at the Jacobi Medical Center. Plastics clinics are conducted several times per month on both campuses.

Neuro-ophthalmology and Consult Service
The second year residents assigned to this rotation examine patients under the direct supervision of Dr. Wertenbaker.  The resident is responsible for the initial evaluation of all of the patients on this service and participates in the care of patients with disorders of ocular motility, orbit, anterior visual pathway and other neuro-ophthalmic disturbances of local or systemic origin.

The extraordinarily large inpatient census of neurological and neurosurgical disease patients increases resident exposure to both common and rare disease manifestations. Second year residents provide consultative services for inpatients from all services with the assistance of the faculty.

Glaucoma Service
Glaucoma rotations occur in both the first and third years. The first year rotation stresses diagnostic techniques and therapeutic decision-making.  Senior residents obtain laser and incisional surgical experience including iridotomy, trabeculectomy, combined cataract/glaucoma surgery, glaucoma seton surgery and complicated filtering surgery.

Retina Service
Resident participation in the evaluation and management of diseases of the retina and vitreous begins in the first year. Residents gain considerable experience in the evaluation of retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic and retinal vascular disease, infectious retinopathy and macular degeneration.

First and second year residents rotate through retina clinics on both campuses with emphasis on the diagnostic techniques of biomicroscopy, ultrasonography and scleral depression. Junior and senior residents learn photocoagulation, cryopexy and surgical and microsurgical methods under the direct supervision of the faculty.  Weekly lectures and a fluorescein conferences stress retinal physiology and pathology.