University of Ottawa - Ophthalmology - Ottawa

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University of Ottawa – Ophthalmology – Ottawa

Ophthalmology

Contact

Dr. Chloe Gottlieb

Program Director

Ginette Snook

Program Administrator

Application Details

Canadian Medical Graduates

3 Available Spots

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Program Highlights

Formal Teaching Schedule
- Academic Half Day Formal Schedule: uOttawa boasts a formal Academic Half Day Teaching Program where the American Academy of Ophthalmology Manuals are covered in completion twice during one’s residency. All half-days are taught directly by staff ophthalmologists or visiting professors.
- Professor Rounds: Twice weekly during the Academic Year, residents receive morning teaching for one hour by staff ophthalmologists covering topics of specific interest as selected by staff or residents. This includes OKAP-prep sessions, prior to writing the OKAP exam.
- Journal Clubs & Grand Rounds: In addition, residents attend and present at weekly Grand Rounds and at monthly Journal Clubs with the entire department.

Formal Courses: Residents participate in external courses including the Toronto Ophthalmology Residency Introductory Course (TORIC) (PGY1), the Ophthalmology Ethics Course (PGY4 or PGY5), Canadian Neuro-Ophthalmology Review Course (CNORC), Jack Crawfod Day, Rosen Day, the Sally Letson Symposium (all years) and review courses as selected by senior residents (PGY4 and PGY5).

Clinical Exposure: uOttawa residents partake in clinical care covering a large geographic base (Ottawa and surrounding urban and rural areas) with coverage of Nunavut (Iqaluit and Baffin Island). This large catchment area results in a wide variety of cases and a large volume creating a great learning environment.

Surgical Teaching: Residents have early exposure to cataract surgery in PGY2 as part of simulation courses early in the program in addition to their junior (PGY3) and senior cataract surgery rotations (PGY4). A new longitudinal experience in cataract surgery has been added to continue surgical exposure into the PGY-5 year until graduation without gaps in surgery exposure. Residents undergo formal surgical simulation as part of the Ophthalmic Surgical Skills Centre (OSSC) including the Introduction to Microsurgery Course (PGY2), Introduction to Cataract Surgery Course (PGY2), Intermediate Cataract Surgery Course (PGY3) and the Advanced Cataract Surgery Course (PGY4/5). The OSCC includes three full surgical stations (including surgical microscope and standard phaco machine) as well as a VR surgical simulator.

Research: Residents have dedicated time roughly equivalent to one-half day a week distributed across PGY2 to PGY4 to conduct and complete research. Residents also have access to research funding in order to support their research endeavours. Residents are funded by the Department of Ophthalmology to attend conferences at which they present their research projects. Staff ophthalmologists are very available and happy to mentor residents through their scholarly endeavours.

Environment & Call System: Residents train at three separate sites during their time in Ottawa. The University of Ottawa Eye Institute offers an in-hospital ambulatory care clinic with access to a large volume of sub-specialists. Residents spend one month in PGY2, four months in PGY3 and one to two months in PGY5 at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) learning pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus surgery. Residents spend half of their PGY2 year at the Riverside Eye Care Centre (RECC) learning community ophthalmology setting and over four months in PGY4 and PGY5 learning cataract surgery. uOttawa is proud to have a buddied call system where junior residents always have access to their senior resident on-call in addition to their staff surgeons to review cases.

Electives: Residents at uOttawa can visit and complete electives in Nunavut and India in their PGY5 year. In addition, many staff surgeons ask uOttawa senior residents to accompany on eye missions through organizations including EyeVan and Orbis International. Other elective opportunities are available and can be arranged as per the residents’ preferences and interest.

Resident Wellness Program: uOttawa prides itself on having a close knit team of residents. The recent creation of a Wellness Program for Residents prepares residents for incorporating wellness as a component of their clinical practice, and a basis for a life-long point of self-focus in building resiliency and maintaining self-care as a physician. The Wellness Program consists of annually 3 expert-led interactive workshops on topics of the residents’ choice, as resident retreat day, completion of wellness online modules, a wellness journal, and a resident-selective Wellness Lead with formal peer support training. Food is provided for all morning and evening teaching sessions. A GoodLife Gym is available at discounted rates for all residents located in The Ottawa Hospital General Campus where the University of Ottawa Eye Institute is located. A Resident Retreat is organized every year where residents are excused from clinical responsibilities dedicating time to formal team building; retreats in the past have included mini golfing, escape rooms and cooking classes. Seasonal faculty gatherings are organized by the Program Director; past events have included the annual Inner-Tube Water Polo Staff versus Resident Party, Laser Tag and Bubble Soccer.

Residents have a dedicated lounge space with access to personal lockers, couches, a refrigerator, a microwave, a tea kettle, two computers and a lunch table in which to socialize.

Mentorship: The Resident Mentorship Program formally pairs residents with a mentor with whom he or she can turn to for personal and professional guidance on an ongoing basis.

Women Trainees in Ophthalmology Program: A series of quarterly meetings are organized with the purpose of exploring topics of interest to women trainees in ophthalmology. Both female residents and fellows are invited to participate. The goals is to provide support, networking opportunities and leadership opportunities to women trainees. A membership to The Raft Online Leadership Program for Women Physicians is provided for free by the program.

General Information

All candidates must meet the Ontario criteria of eligibility.

Three separate sites at which residents train, one site providing subspecialty medical and surgical teaching, one providing comprehensive surgical and medical paediatric eye care, and one site providing comprehensive community practice training.

Early surgical exposure, beginning in the PGY-2 year, to ensure that the resident is extremely well trained surgically.
A very large volume of didactic and interactive teaching with staff.
Large amount of one-on-one teaching allowing residents to interact directly with the comprehensive or subspecialist ophthalmologist.
A regular opportunity to delve in a wide variety of research topics.
A regular opportunity to attend national and international meetings.
A very warm and friendly atmosphere between residents and staff.
Very responsive Postgraduate Training Committee set on resolving any personal or academic matters that arise promptly and fairly.
The clinical facility and research labs are in very close proximity and thus there is often interaction between PhD researchers, clinicians and residents. This includes work on resident research projects.
University of Ottawa Ophthalmic Surgical Simulation Center provides a non-intimidating, dynamic yet controlled surgical environment. Junior residents meet with a surgical preceptor to refine surgical approaches and techniques. This is a unique feature of our program in Ottawa to recognize the value of early surgical training by creating dedicated surgical training time for PGY-2s. Their experience in the wet lab is coupled with OR time to translate the skills acquired in the simulation center and apply them to live patient encounters in the operating room. The EYESi Ophthalmic Surgery Simulator (VR Magic), which includes a cataract and vitrectomy training modules is state of the art technology that allow residents the ability to refine many of their surgical skills.
Participation in the Cataract Surgery Skills Courses outside the university.
A Summer clinical skills enhancement course to learn the fundamentals of managing ocular trauma and emergencies, pediatric ophthalmology emergencies, diagnostic clinical equipment, refraction and wellness skill building.
A resident rotation dedicated to ophthalmic diagnostics.
National and International partnerships.
Opportunity for residents to participate in refractive surgery. A unique experience among ophthalmology programs.
Dedicated research time away from clinical activities.
A faculty-run mentorship program matching a resident with a mentor ophthalmologist.
A nationally recognized orbital anatomy course for a solid foundation in orbit/oculoplastic and neuro-ophthalmology.
Funding opportunities for research and conference presentations.
A Resident Wellness Program with a peer support program, expert-led workshops and faculty involvement.
A strong Visiting Professor Program with half-day lectures to the residents.

Salary Information

Post graduate salaries and benefits differ by province and are determined by two things: your training year, and the province you work in. See below the salaries and benefits for University of Ottawa - Ophthalmology - Ottawa.

Ontario
	Effective October 4th, 2023
PGY1	$67,044.99
PGY2	$72,804.48
PGY3	$78,190.61
PGY4	$84,712.26
PGY5	$90,073.03
PGY6	$95,190.86
PGY7	$99,836.15
PGY8	$105,844.41
PGY9	$109,734.47


Professional Leave	7 working days/year Additional time off provided for writing any CND or US certification exam, leave includes the exam date and reasonable travel time to and from the exam site. Additional RCPSC & CFPC Certification Examination Prep Time Subject to operational requirements and at the request of a resident, a resident will not be scheduled for call duties for a period up to fourteen days prior to a CFPC or RCPSC certification exam. Subject to operational requirements and at the request of a resident, a resident will be granted up to seven consecutive days off during one of the four weeks preceding a CFPC or RCPSC certification exam.
Annual Vacation	4 weeks
Meal Allowance	No
Frequency of Calls	1 in 4 In-hospital, 1 in 3 home
Pregnancy Leave	17 weeks
Parental Leave	35 weeks, 37 weeks if resident did not take pregnancy leave
Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) Plan	Top-up to 84% 27 weeks for women who take pregnancy and parental leave; 12 weeks for parents on stand-alone parental leave.
Provincial Health Insurance	Yes
Extended Health Insurance	Yes
Provincial Dues (% of salary)	1.3%
Dental Plan	85% paid for eligible expenses
CMPA Dues Paid	Under current arrangements, residents are rebated by Ministry of Health and Long Term Care for dues in excess of $300.
Long-Term Disability Insurance	Yes – 70% of salary, non-taxable.
Statutory and Floating Holidays	2 weeks leave with full pay and benefits; 10 stat days plus 1 personal floater. Residents are entitled to at least 5 consecutive days off over the Christmas or New Year period, which accounts for 3 statutory holidays (Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day), and 2 weekend days.
Life Insurance	Yes, 2x salary
Salary and Benefit Continuance	A resident that can’t work due to illness or injury will have salary and benefits maintained for 6 months or until end of appointment (whichever occurs first)
Call Stipend	Regular: $127.60 in-hospital; $63.80 home call or qualifying shift on shift-based services. Weekend premium: $140.36 in-hospital; $70.18 home call or qualifying shift on shift-based services.

Updated October 4, 2023

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Ottawa

Ottawa is Canada’s capital, in the east of southern Ontario, near the city of Montréal and the U.S. border. Sitting on the Ottawa River, it has at its centre Parliament Hill, with grand Victorian architecture and museums such as the National Gallery of Canada, with noted collections of indigenous and other Canadian art. The park-lined Rideau Canal is filled with boats in summer and ice-skaters in winter.

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