As New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) continues to strengthen and expand its ophthalmology residency program—the largest accredited program of its type in the country—trainees are exposed to learning opportunities available at few other academic medical centers.
In 2021, for the first time, residents were able to rotate among four clinic and acute care sites throughout New York City that offer an extraordinary range of patients and ocular pathologies. Moreover, residents get to observe and actually perform parts of surgeries during their first year so that by their second year they are handling procedures from start to finish (under the watchful eye of an attending physician). “Accelerating the surgical process by a full year enables residents to function at a higher level during their first year, and represents a fundamental change in how we deliver residency training,” says Harsha S. Reddy, MD, Ophthalmology Residency Program Director and Site Director for Oculoplastics, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery at NYEE and Mount Sinai Beth Israel.
Paving the way for that restructuring is the Joint Internship Program launched in
July 2020. The initiative allows trainees to start their residency enrolled in a one-year
internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, which includes nine months of general medicine and
three months of ophthalmology training. “Our Joint Internship Program gives us a small but
important block of additional time to expose residents to our subspecialty clinics and to train them to perform the patient eye exam and treat emergencies,” notes Paul A. Sidoti,
MD, Deputy Chair for Education, Department of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine
at Mount Sinai, and Chair of Ophthalmology, NYEE. “It allows interns to truly hit the ground
running when they begin their three-year residency.”
The four cases described on the following pages exemplify the complex procedures and
pathologies that residents tackle. “What makes our program unique is that it allows residents
to sharpen their surgical skills on cases that would be reserved for fellows or attendings
elsewhere,” explains Dr. Reddy. “At NYEE, they’re not just observers, but actual surgeons
who get to experience the complexities and teamwork that only a multispecialty eye
hospital like New York Eye and Ear can offer.”
