Medical Training, Residency, and Fellowship
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s GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AROUND THE WORLD: MEDICAL TRAINING, RESIDENCY, AND FELLOWSHIP An overview of similarities and differences in systems far and wide. BY DELI KRIZOVA, FEBO; PAVEL KUCHYNKA, CSC, FCMA; WANJIKU MATHENGE, MBCHB, MMED, MSC, PHD; RADHIKA RAMPAT, MBBS, BSC(HONS), FRCOPHTH; ANDREW SCOTT, PHD, MD, FRCOPHTH, MRCSED, FEBO; JORGE E. VALDEZ-GARCÍA, MD, PHD; AND RICCARDO VINCIGUERRA, MD Medical School and Residency: Free of Charge for Students DELI KRIZOVA, FEBO, AND PAVEL KUCHYNKA, CSC, FCMA edical training in the Czech institution of the faculty. Fellowships Republic lasts 6 years. At are offered by individual clinics or Prague, Czech Republic the end of training, students organized centrally by the Institute must complete rigorous state for Postgraduate Medical Education. examinations to obtain the Mtitle of general doctor (MUDr). A recent PROS AND CONS graduate may seek employment in any The country’s educational system clinical field of medicine. works well as a whole. A major positive site in a relatively small field such as is that most of the education, including ophthalmology injects differences into TRAINING SPECIFICS medical school and the residency the conditions and organization of Ophthalmology residency is divided program, is free of charge for students. the examinations, which can confuse into two parts: basic ophthalmologic Moreover, the residency program is young doctors. training and specialized training. revised every 2 to 3 years to reflect Residency training takes place at evolutions in medicine. workplaces that are accredited for The system’s main drawback is the DELI KRIZOVA, FEBO specialized education in ophthalmology organization of attestation examinations. n Ophthalmology Department, Vinohrady Teaching and other clinical fields. In the past, these examinations Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic To complete the program, residents were organized by the Institute for n [email protected] must complete 2.5 years of basic Postgraduate Medical Education, which n Financial disclosure: None ophthalmological training followed by falls under the Ministry of Health. In examinations and 2 years of specialized 2012, the examinations were transferred PAVEL KUCHYNKA, CSC, FCMA training followed by attestation exami- to the Ministry of Education, and now n Ophthalmology Department, Vinohrady nations—a total of 4.5 years. Attestations their organization is handled by the Teaching Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic are organized by medical faculty twice medical faculties at six institutions. n [email protected] a year; the venue depends on the Periodic rotation of the examination n Financial disclosure: None 38 GLAUCOMA TODAY | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES s MEDICAL TRAINING AND OPHTHALMOLOGY RESIDENCY AND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS Transformations in Training Modules he goal of undergraduate and Rwanda, three private universities graduate medical training in have opened medical schools, but Rwanda is to produce general they have yet to graduate any doc- WANJIKU MATHENGE, doctors and specialists with tors. The pool of doctors to recruit MBCHB, MMED, MSC, PHD competencies and skills that meet into ophthalmology residency training Tpatients’ reasonable expectations. remains limited. Kigali, Rwanda The University of Rwanda is the Ophthalmology residency training country’s oldest medical school. It is the only specialty hosted not by admits students who have completed the University of Rwanda but by the 12 years of formal education, rank at Rwanda International Institute of the top of the cohort, and have passed Ophthalmology (RIIO), a constituent the Advanced General Certificate of training program of the College of Secondary Education. The university’s Ophthalmology of Eastern Central enforcement of the college training training program requires 5 to 6 years and Southern Africa (COECSA). standards have been possible at new to complete and culminates with the This program admits doctors from institutions like the RIIO, but the awarding of a bachelor’s degree in Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo, and it transition is happening more slowly medicine and surgery with honors. awards a fellowship in ophthalmology at older institutions with Master of The University of Rwanda also offers after a minimum of 4 years of train- Medicine in ophthalmology training nine programs that confer a Master ing. This college-based training is programs that are governed under of Medicine to doctors who have becoming more popular. The empha- institutional frameworks that existed performed 2 years of public service sis is on equipping every graduate before COECSA.2 For example, as general doctors; most of these are with defined core competencies, training lasts 3 years in some programs 4-year programs. including all of the requisite knowl- and 4 years in others. A goal of the In order to address a massive edge, technical skills (Figure 1), and COECSA is to develop its own written shortage in medical doctors in soft skills (eg, communication, ethics, examinations and either to slowly patient safety, and professionalism) replace the ICO examinations or to that are deemed to be essential in the have a blend of both. medical profession. The first cohort of ophthalmology The program draws on the best residents at the RIIO are on track to practices of the UK’s Royal College of complete their training by mid-2022. Ophthalmology1 and the International Once they begin practicing in hospi- Council of Ophthalmology (ICO). tals, the quality of their services will Trainees at the RIIO must pass the give a true indication of the value of ICO’s examinations in visual sciences, this training model. optics and refraction, and instruments 1. Corbett MC, Mathenge W, Zondervan M, Astbury N. Cascading training the Courtesy of Wanjiku Mathenge, MBChB, MMed, MSc, PhD as well as in clinical sciences before trainers in ophthalmology across Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Global Health. 2017;13(1):46. presenting for a clinical examination 2. Dean W, Gichuhi S, Buchan J, et al. Survey of ophthalmologists-in-training in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa: A regional focus on ophthalmic surgical offered by the COECSA. Candidates education. Wellcome Open Res. 2019;4:187. must show that they have achieved all of the COECSA residency training milestones and charted their progress WANJIKU MATHENGE, MBCHB, MMED, MSC, PHD during clinical placements using n Director of Training and Research, Rwanda workplace-based assessments. International Institute of Ophthalmology, Kigali Figure 1. RIIO trainees use surgical simulation training for COECSA has members from n [email protected] cataract surgery. 12 African countries. Adoption and n Financial disclosure: None JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 | GLAUCOMA TODAY 39 s GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Using Seven Key Recommended Goals for Training fter 4 to 6 years in medical hospital if the training standards are RADHIKA RAMPAT, school in the United Kingdom, not met. MBBS, BSC(HONS), students graduate with a Only through high-quality training FRCOPHTH, bachelor of medicine/bachelor can the highest standard of care for of surgery (MBBS) degree patients be ensured (see Seven Key AND ANDREW Awith or without a bachelor of science Recommended Goals for Training). SCOTT, PHD, degree. Full registration is achieved MD, FRCOPHTH, by completing another 2 years of TIME foundation training (Figure 2). A complaint sometimes voiced about MRCSED, FEBO Selection into ophthalmology the UK’s training program is that it is programs in our country is highly too long, but it is the only one in Europe London, competitive. Participants may choose that incorporates a mandatory year of United Kingdom to pursue either an academic route fellowship in a specific specialty of choice. by incorporating research into their Moreover, the length of the program training program or other degrees prior helps to ensure a depth and breadth to application to an ophthalmology training program in order to improve their chances of selection. Each of the 7 years of training includes a rigor- ous Annual Review of Competence Progression, and participants must complete three tough examinations that include a refraction certificate and two Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists examinations (FRCOphth parts 1 and 2). Specialty training occurs within National Health Service (NHS) hospitals, but it is the Deanery and Royal College of Ophthalmologists Abbreviations: GP, general practitioner; GMC, General Medical Council; ST, specialist trainee; TSC, trainee-selected component; OOPE, out-of-program experience; OOPT, out-of-program training; OOPR, out-of-program research (eg, PhD, MD). that ensures standards and quality Figures 2–4 courtesy of Radhika Rampat, MBBS, BSc(Hons), FRCOphth, and Andrew Scott, PhD, MD, MRCSEd, FEBO of training are upheld. Clinical Figure 2. A summary of training in the United Kingdom. governance plays a major role in UK training; participants are not only taught about it but must also submit evidence of practicing it. Figures 3 and 4 show our specific training journeys. QUALITY The United Kingdom’s structured training programs are held in high regard internationally and attract participants from overseas. Because salaries for training doctors are partly funded by the Deanery, there is an incentive for NHS hospitals to provide a high standard of training in order to retain their trainees. Abbreviations: ST, specialist trainee; UCH, University College Hospital; RFH, Royal Free Hospital; WEH, Western Eye Hospital; MEH, Moorfields Eye Hospital; IFMSA, These