Five years ago, James Chelnis, MD, became the chair of the editorial board of the YO Info newsletter, and I became a board member. In January, he passed the honor of committee chair to me.
When I joined the YO Info editorial board back then, I was just starting as a pediatric ophthalmologist in Richmond, Va. at Virginia Commonwealth University, the job I still hold. I was excited with the mission of YO Info — providing pertinent and topical information to residents, fellowship trainees and ophthalmologists in the first five years out of training.
We have touched on important subjects like advocacy, clinical pearls (through the YO Need to Know series and beyond), coding, financial literacy and many other subjects. We also produce a yearly Resident Edition aimed at PGY-1s and PGY-2s just starting their ophthalmology career; and recently, a Graduate Edition aimed at residents and fellows entering the workforce as full-fledged ophthalmologists. Last year, we also added an International Edition to our arsenal to highlight contributions from our YO colleagues abroad and to focus on global issues facing YOs and ophthalmology.
As the incoming chair, I hope to continue Dr. Chelnis’ legacy of excellent content for our readership. I will engage with our amazing and talented editorial board, which include Drs. Grayson Armstrong, Cherie Fathy, Bradley Henriksen, Viraj Mehta, Jessica Randolph, and Nandini Venkateswaran.
We are in a challenging era of medicine; being in the middle of the COVID pandemic, can we forge a new path forward for ophthalmology residents and physicians? Given our foray into virtual learning, are there better ways to teach and educate our residents now that we are more accepting of virtual classrooms? With medicine and patients embracing telemedicine, can we move some of ophthalmologic care to a new model?
Scope legislation remains a constant struggle (Virginia’s Senate and House of Representatives are currently discussing a bill to expand optometrist’s scope of practice) — how can we be more proactive in protecting our patients’ health?
These are just some of the exciting and provocative topics we hope to explore with you — giving YOs the tools you need to succeed as residents, fellowship trainees, and ophthalmologists. Please reach out to me if there are topics you would like to learn more about or if you would like to contribute an article — we encourage participation from our membership.
Keep an eye out for the YO Info monthly newsletters in your inbox! If you have never gotten a YO Info email and want to receive it, contact us at yo@aao.org.
Evan Silverstein, MD
Chair, YO Info Editorial Board