Tips for AAO 2023—Dr. Alvarez Gonzalez: “Explore Subspecialty Day”

Erica R. Alvarez Gonzalez, MD, is an ocular oncologist and medical retina specialist. She is assistant professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center/Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso, Texas, and is now going into private practice in the area. 

My first annual meeting—Las Vegas in 2015. Earlier that year, I had written an article about the Mid-Year Forum and was subsequently invited to attend the annual meeting’s Orbital Gala by the Young Ophthalmologist (YO) committee. It was an incredible time.

My advice to residents—explore the different subspecialties. As a resident I started attending both the Retina and Ocular Oncology Subspecialty Day meetings, as I knew I had an interest in both. It was my interactions in the smaller, more intimate setting of the Ocular Oncology meeting that solidified my decision on which fellowship to pursue. I got to hear from legends like Carol Shields, MD, David H. Abramson, MD, and Dan S. Gombos, MD. I saw how passionately they spoke about diseases and treatment approaches, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how collegial everyone was. Now don’t get me wrong, there were certainly some debates that took place—especially on retinoblastoma—but the rapid exchange of information and opinions was invigorating. In that smaller meeting setting I made connections that have served me throughout my career. I would encourage any residents attending the meeting to start frequenting the Subspecialty Day meetings so they can get a feel for what each field may be like. You never know who you may meet and how that may later impact you in your career. 

My top tip for getting the most out of the meeting—pause, grab a coffee, and look through the program. The best tip I got was from my senior resident at the time, Dr. Usi Abugo. On our first day at the convention center, we enjoyed a cup of coffee and went through the program and circled the sessions we most wanted to attend. We discovered many meetings overlapped, and this helped us narrow down our personal list of must-attend events.

This content is excerpted from the Sunday/Monday edition of AAO 2023 News, the newspaper distributed at the convention center.

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