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Purpose: The aim of this study was to study the perception of residency trainers about an optimum residency program., Methods: A survey, using a pre-validated questionnaire, was conducted by the Academic and Research Committee of the All India Ophthalmological Society, in 2019-20 with questions directed to teachers in medical colleges and national board of examination's ophthalmology residency programs on demography, teaching experience, imparting clinical and surgical skills, ideal academic schedule and dissertation in the post-graduate residency program., Results: The response rate in the survey was 47.6%. Valid responses were obtained from 309 residency trainers. Of these, 132 of 309 (42.7%) were females. The mean age was 45.3 ± 9.5 years, range 26-68 years. The trainers believed that on a scale of 0-10, clinical skills teaching should be taught, mean ± SD: slit lamp 9.8 ± 0.7; indirect ophthalmoscopy 9.3 ± 1.3; gonioscopy 9.2 ± 1.5; perimetry 8.9 ± 1.5; OCT 8.4 ± 1.9; applanation tonometry 9.5 ± 1.2 and orthoptic evaluation 8.1 (±1.9). A resident should ideally perform independently surgeries (median, inter-quartile range IQR): SICS 50 (IQR 40-100); phaco 50 (20-60); pterygium excision 20 (10-40); DCR 10 (5-20); chalazion 20 (10-50), trabeculectomy 7 (5-15); strabismus 5 (2-10), LASIK and retinal detachment 0. Ideally there should be four lectures, four seminars, four case presentations, five journal clubs and four wet labs every month., Conclusion: Teachers expected their wards to become competent professionals. There was near unanimity about the content of clinical skills training, non-medical skills and academics, but there was a significant variation on extent of surgical training that should be imparted to the residents., Competing Interests: None

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the humanity at a global level to a large extent by the burden of the disease with significant mortality and to a certain extent as a byproduct of the necessary efforts to contain the same. There is a significant impact on the health care system, as we not only have to contain pandemic, but continue to treat our non-COVID-19 patients in a safe and responsible manner. Ophthalmology practice in general and glaucoma in particular needs certain modifications and additional precautions while examining as well as managing these patients keeping their and our safety in mind. As the lockdown relaxations are in vogue we need to learn how to deal with our regular patients as well in addition to emergency care. This paper presents the consensus-based guidelines by an expert panel on how to restart glaucoma practice during this COVID-19 time. These guidelines will be applicable across the country and should help ophthalmologists and glaucoma specialist to restart their practices while safeguarding the patients and their own selves from getting infected., Competing Interests: None

Cataract is the second leading cause of preventable blindness on the globe. Several programs across the country have been running efficiently to increase the cataract surgical rates and decrease blindness due to cataract. The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete halt of these programs and thus accumulating all the elective cataract procedures. At present with the better understanding of the safety precautions among the health care workers and general population the Government of India (GoI) has given clearance for functioning of eye care facilities. In order to facilitate smooth functioning of every clinic, in this paper, we prepared preferred practice pattern based on consensus discussions between leading ophthalmologists in India including representatives from major governmental and private institutions as well as the All India Ophthalmological Society leadership. These guidelines will be applicable to all practice settings including tertiary institutions, corporate and group practices and individual eye clinics. The guidelines include triage, use of personal protective equipment, precautions to be taken in the OPD and operating room as well for elective cataract screening and surgery. These guidelines have been prepared based on current situation but are expected to evolve over a period of time based on the ongoing pandemic and guidelines from GoI., Competing Interests: None

Background: Residency training is the basis of good clinical and surgical practice., Purpose: The aim is to know the demographics, training experience, and perception of young ophthalmologists to improve the present residency programs in India., Setting: Young ophthalmologists trained in India., Methods: A survey was conducted by the Academic and Research Committee of the All India Ophthalmology Society, in 2014-2016 of young ophthalmologists (those trained between 2002 and 2012, with 2-10 years' postresidency experience) to gauge teaching of clinical and surgical skills during the postgraduate residency program., Statistical Analysis: Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16., Results: Of the 1005 respondents, 531 fulfilled inclusion criteria. Average age was 32.6 years (standard deviation [SD] 4). On a scale of 0-10, clinical skills teaching was graded as (mean, SD): Slit lamp examination (7.2, SD 2.8), indirect ophthalmoscopy (6.2, SD 3.3), gonioscopy (5.7, SD 3.4), perimetry (6.2, SD 3.2), optical coherence tomography (4.6, SD 4), and orthoptic evaluation (4.3, SD 3.1). The mean (SD) and median of surgeries performed independently was intracapsular cataract extraction 3.0 (14.9), 0; extracapsular cataract extraction 39.9 (53.2), 18; small incision cataract surgery 75.3 (64.4), 55; phacoemulsification 30 (52.6), 1; pterygium excision 31.5 (43.5), 15; dacryocystectomy 20.3 (38.1), 4; dacryocystorhinostomy 11.7 (26.2), 2; chalazion 46.4 (48.3), 30; trabeculectomies 4 (14.9), 0; strabismus correction 1.4 (4.9), 0; laser-assisted in situ Keratomileusis 1.5 (12.2), 0; retinal detachment 1.5 (12.5), 0; vitrectomy 3.0 (17.0), 0; keratoplasty 5.2 (17.8), 0; eyelid surgery 8.6 (18.9), 2 and ocular emergencies 41.7 (52.4), 20. Observed and assisted surgeries were more common. However, the range of grading was 0-10 in all categories., Conclusion: Residency training in India varies considerably from program to program. Standardization is needed to assure all graduates are competent and render consistent quality of service.

Purpose: To know the perception of young ophthalmologists about their dissertation and academics during residency training in order to improve the research output during present residency programs in India., Methods: A survey was conducted by Academic and Research Committee of the All India Ophthalmological Society, the world's second largest ophthalmic professional's organization, in 2014-2016 of young ophthalmologists (those who completed residency between 2005 and 2012) to gauge usefulness of dissertation or thesis during postgraduate residency., Results: There were 1005 respondents, of whom 531 fulfilled inclusion criteria. On a scale of 0-10, residents rated level of supervision of their dissertation as adequate (mean 5.9/10, standard deviation [SD] = 3.1, median = 6). The level of infrastructure available was for dissertation rated as 5.9/10 (median = 7, SD = 3.1), and 6.2/10 was the score that residents said about value added by the dissertation (median = 7). The dissertation was presented at local (33.5%), state (28.1%), national (15.4%), and international (4%) levels. Students, not supervisors, did most of the local and state level presentations. It was published in some forms at local 210 (39.5%), state (140, 26.4%), national (94, 17.7%), and international (39, 7.3%) levels. On a scale of 0-4, seminars (3/4) and case presentations were (3/4) rated higher than didactic lectures (2.2/4), journal clubs (2.2/4), and wet laboratory (1.1/4)., Conclusion: Peer-reviewed publications from Indian residency training dissertations were few. Residents felt dissertation added value to their training, but there was a huge range among the responses. Journal clubs and wet laboratories were not graded high in academic programs, unlike seminars and case presentations.