Advice from the experts: Helpful information for current residents

At this year's AAO meeting held in Chicago, Illinois, experts advised current residents in the field and offered insight into how residents can make the most of their time and experience.

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

John Berdhal, MD:

Oh, man, I love giving advice, especially to residents. So if I could give a piece of advice to a resident, I would say, use your naivety to your advantage, because you're not in the box yet. And so think more broadly–connect your understanding of the physiology of the body, which you know way better than those of us that have been practicing for 15 years. Connect those dots, come up with something innovative to help spur the profession. You know, the other thing that I would say is get comfortable in your own thinking, and that's a hard thing to do because you've gotten so trained to do what other people tell you to do, but as you get more and more comfortable with your own thinking–know your own moral compass, you'll do the right thing for the patient in front of you.

Meghan Berkenstock, MD:

If I was a resident again today, I would make the most of every moment in the clinic, not only to figure out if you would like to specialize or not. But given the dramatic and shifting nature of both surgical procedures and also medical diagnoses, it's imperative to spend as much time with your mentors, to be able to get the most learning and surgical experience during your training programs. And if you would like to sub-specialize in uveitis, we would love to have you, because we're an unrepresented specialty amongst most folks who sub-specialize these days.

Jonathan Brugger, MD:

So with residents, I think the one hole in our education is contracts and what it's like in the real world. And that was something that I would talk to the residents as a fellow, as a vitreoretinal surgeon, and try to teach them about what contracts look like. What is a fair contract? What does it look like in a private equity spectrum, as far as a contract. What does it look like with a private practice? Your bonus, your incentives, your run-ins. And I think that's really something that is missing in residency programs. Furthermore, as a vitreoretinal surgeon, individuals that are prescribing different intravitreal therapies also don't understand the business side of it, whether insurance is going to cover certain medications, so you need to do step therapy. I think that's another hole that's in there. So there's a whole business aspect to medicine that is just completely being missed during residency and fellowship.