Dr RHO Chang Rae

Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine,

The Catholic University of Korea

South Korea

'During my stay, I attended the cornea clinic and operation theater, which has been a satisfactory and meaningful experience.'

I am sincerely honored to receive the Asia Cornea Society-Santen Asia Educational Observer-ship Grant in Singapore National Eye Center (SNEC) (from 25 March 2017 to 08 April 2017). During my stay, I attended the cornea clinic and operation theater, which has been a satisfactory and meaningful experience.

Actually, I had visited SNEC before and had a tour to look around. However, the 2-week observation was a completely different experience since it allowed me to more closely participate in the field. The eye center and staffs were earnestly devoted to providing the patients with individually oriented clinical service.

Although the consultants were VERY busy in the outpatient clinics, they were all generous to show around the clinics and explain interesting cases to me. Prof. Jod Mehta was implementing new concepts in the corneal surgery for the patients with Avellino dystrophy and Fuch's dystrophy. I watched his surgeries including DALF, sutureless Gunderson flap using fibrin glue, and surface keratectomy. Dr. Anshu was also impressive in that she was so kind to patients and other staffs. She was an expert in Dsaek, and I attended her surgeries including one simple Dsaek and one reDsaek for the failed previous Dsaek patient case. The surgeries were engaging and intellectually stimulating. Prof. Donald Tan showed me a Dsaek with IOL exchange and DMEK surgery. I am truthfully grateful that he offered me an opportunity to observe other corneal surgery in another hospital.

I strongly recommend attaining this opportunity. Only thing I regret is that 2 weeks passed so quickly. As long as the circumstances grant, it would be better to have a longer time period to observe more surgeries and attend clinics.

Although it seems too sentimental to say that an ophthalmologist helps people to see the light and to escape from blindness, I believe that being an ophthalmologist truly has a special meaning. Thus, the participants in this program may have a certain responsibility as well as the privilege. The medical techniques in surgeries and personal-oriented clinical practices I observed in this experience will be integrated in my clinical practices. I believe this observer-ship is indeed a crucial turning point for any medical expert including me.