ONE® Network Highlights for New Residents

New residents are entering their ophthalmology training during a period of significant change: as of summer 2021, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education now requires that internships are either joint or integrated.

Here we highlight resources from the Academy’s ONE® (Ophthalmic News and Education) Network that can help both PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents navigate this period.

There is an overwhelming amount of information you need to learn right now, so we suggest you focus on high-yield, engaging and interactive ways to learn. Reading and rereading alone is not an effective mastery technique, and the activities highlighted here are evidence based and time efficient.

PGY-1. For those of you who are starting your PGY-1 intern year — now with three months of ophthalmology included, we have created the following page with some guidelines on how to make the most of your time: aao.org/resources-for-pgy-1-and-pgy-2-ophthalmology-residents.

PGY-2. For residents starting PGY-2, we hope that a growing number of you are already in the institution where you will continue into residency, since this certainly makes the transition less stressful.

Resources

The Academy’s Committee for Resident Education oversees online content for residents at aao.org/ residents. You will find an array of resources created to help you study and learn:

• Flashcards that you can use for group or individual study — aao.org/flashcards.
• Slides and diagrams for study and learning — aao.org/okap-study-presentations.
• Videos, including introductory lectures, presentations and basic surgical skills — aao.org/residents-browse?filter=video.
• Interactive Strabismus Simulator and Retinoscopy Simulator — aao.org/interactive-tool/strabismus-simulator and aao.org/interactive-tool/retinoscopy-simulator.
• Online courses with a variety of topics, including optics — aao.org/residents-browse?filter=course.
• Interactive simulated cases on OCT interpretation and much more — aao.org/resident-course/introduction-to-oct.
• Cataract Master, a cognitive training tool for cataract surgery decision-making — aao.org/interactive-tool/cataract-master-2.

We have aimed to create interactive and creative modules to help you learn about complex topics in ophthalmology. Beyond the links in this article, you can find all this content and more at aao.org/residents or use the search function on the site.

I encourage you to share your best ophthalmology memory palaces at the following Instagram page, created by Dr. Evan Silverstein, for potential publication via the Academy: instagram.com/ophthalmologymemorypalaces.

Be a Part of Our Future!

We welcome you into ophthalmology with open arms, and if you have ideas for new or innovative ways that we can help residents manage and acquire knowledge, please email us at onefeedback@aao.org.

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Laura K. Green, MD, is the residency program director and a cataract and cornea surgeon at the Krieger Eye Institute, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. She is also chair of the Academy’s Committee for Resident Education.