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ESCRS Young Ophthalmologists session focuses on lessons learned from surgical mistakes
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ISTANBUL — The interactive Young Ophthalmologists session held at the beginning of the winter meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons was built around two lectures by experienced ophthalmologists who described some of the surgical tips and tricks they teach their trainees. The lectures were followed by a series of videos submitted by young ophthalmologists and comments by a panel of senior surgeons, with great interactivity from the audience.
Richard Packard
One of the senior lecturers, Richard Packard, MD, FRCS, FRCOphth, said that he was positively surprised by the quality and honesty of the videos, which highlighted the problems and complications of early surgical experiences.
“Most of the videos showed early experiences where things did not go according to plan. I was also on the panel, and it was quite exciting seeing the videos and where young surgeons had started getting into trouble. Obviously they had not been able to avoid the problem at the time, but certainly they were able to reflect, come to the stage and share their thoughts with us and other young colleagues in the audience to understand how things could have gone better,” Packard told Ocular Surgery News. This kind of approach is a big improvement, he said.
“We have been running this session a number of times in previous years, and over time the number of videos has increased exponentially. In the past, they were early videos where nothing had gone wrong, but now they demonstrate where things did not go right. This is a much better learning strategy, where you are prepared to recognize your mistakes and learn by them,” he said. – by Michela Cimberle
Disclosure: Packard reports no relevant financial disclosures.