Message From Our Program Director

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SAM REITER: Welcome to the Department of Ophthalmology
at California Pacific Medical Center.
This is a virtual tour of the residency training
program, our facilities, community, and culture.
CPMC Ophthalmology has a long history of training residents
to become excellent clinicians and surgeons.
We match three residents each year,
who will rotate throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area
in order to serve our diverse population that lives here.
We opened a new state-of-the-art facility in San Francisco
in 2018, the Pacific Vision Eye Institute,
which is our home base, to consolidate several vital
features of the residency program into one central
location, including an Education Center for resident education,
the Lions Eye Clinic, the Ophthalmic Diagnostic Services
office, the Pacific Vision Surgery Center,
and many of the practices of our teaching faculty.
Our residents rotate through several sites
to complete their training.
All residents start with a joint PGY-1 internship
with the Department of Internal Medicine, during which they
spend three months with us on the ophthalmology service.
The main hub during PGY-2 year and throughout our training
program is the Lions Eye Clinic in San Francisco.
This is a resident-run clinic where
we care for some of the most vulnerable patients
in our community.
To broaden their experience, our residents
rotate at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, where they learn
advanced cataract techniques, as well as Highland Hospital
in Oakland, which is a county hospital and a Level I trauma
center.
During subspecialty rotations, residents
rotate with nationally respected ophthalmologists
who practice throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
in a variety of practice settings.
The heart of our program is made up
of our devoted faculty, a close-knit group
of ophthalmologists who are deeply committed
to resident education.
We all share in the commitment to caring
for the underserved population of Northern California,
and that commitment is something that we
look for in our applicants.
The history of this department is quite interesting.
We are the oldest ophthalmology department in the West
by many, many years.
We began in 1872 and have had an unblemished and unbroken record
since that time.
We've seen many situations, survived
good times and bad times.
And we are flourishing now with our new space, our new ASC,
and the future looks as good as the past has been.
MYRA SAFO: My primary goal was that I
wanted to find the program that was going to train me the best,
specifically how to be the best surgeon and the best clinician.
MUSTAFA SAFI: Having been in this program for a little
over six months, I feel like I've
developed the skills necessary to not only evaluate
a patient very efficiently, but also
have a very solid understanding of the type of pathology
I'm dealing with.
RONA SILKISS: The uniqueness of our program
is based on our faculty, because our faculty really
treat the residents as if they are colleagues.
And we know that in a very short period of time, they will be.
ANITA AGARWAL: The biggest advantage, I think,
is the fact that they have a lot of people that they learn from.
If you're in university, there may be 15, 20 faculty members,
whereas here, there's probably 40,
50 of us between all of our private practices
and the academic teachings.
MUSTAFA SAFI: The type of relationship is very collegial.
And that really bodes well for the residents
because they feel really comfortable asking
any of the attending physicians any questions,
anything related to ophthalmology,
and they really take you under their wing.
ANITA AGARWAL: They come to our office,
so they see patients with us.
We also operate with the residents.
And we have grand rounds and lectures.
So they learn in different aspects
and different ways of learning.
RONA SILKISS: The residents spend two months working
with me on their oculoplastic rotation
during their first year.
As such, they literally are working
almost as if they were my fellow,
spending every day in the clinic and in the operating
room with me, learning oculoplastic surgery.
ANITA AGARWAL: They're able to do refractive surgery.
They have projects with refractive surgeons,
so they learn a lot of new technology, which
is more than just bread and butter learning
cataracts and regular retinal and other ocular diseases.
MUSTAFA SAFI: So some of the defining qualities of CPMC,
I would say, is the surgical experience.
Truly, you are the primary surgeon
when you're doing any type of surgical case here.
And that is a very unique experience,
that I would say not many programs in the country
have that type of opportunity.
ANITA AGARWAL: And I've seen the first-year residents
come through my ORs within the first month.
And by the time they come into their second year,
they are already proficient with the whole system.
They are able to manage everything.
They're able to set up any kind of follow-up
for patients, any kind of surgery,
any other consultation.
RONA SILKISS: I'm also very interested in research
and encourage the residents to do research projects with me
and have mentored several of the residents
on award-winning Barkan projects.
JONATHAN HERNANDEZ: I'm an alum from our program, which
means that I spend a third of my residency here at Highland.
Highland is a place where young doctors enter as residents
but leave as ophthalmologists.
It's here that we first hang a shingle over a door
with your name, where you have your own patient panel,
and develop strong relationships with patients
from all walks of life.
Here, you'll see incredibly diverse pathology
and be supported by a stellar group of attendings
that are all dedicated to your education.
For generations, this is where CPMC residents
have mastered cataract surgery and have also
been primary surgeons on a wide variety of complex surgeries,
including incisional glaucoma surgery, MIGS,
corneal transplants, eye wall exchanges, to name a few.
Residents on my service operate once to twice a week.
And you do it all while having a good time.
You're going to work hard.
It's hard work.
But you will grow here.
And you'll find a sense of purpose
that's hard to find elsewhere.
RONA SILKISS: Our residents are very
successful in being able to pursue the things that they
want to do after they finish training.
That could be getting a university position,
working in private practice, increasing their education,
continuing their education by a fellowship program.
And even beyond that, we've graduated several presidents
of the American Academy of Ophthalmology,
including the first female president
of the American Academy of Ophthalmology
and the second female president of the American Academy
of Ophthalmology.
Both of those women came from this program.
MYRA SAFO: When you talk to a lot of attendings
who worked with our residents after they graduate,
they say specifically that we make really great clinicians
because we know how to manage such
a wide range of pathologies, because we've seen it all.
MUSTAFA SAFI: So it's really unique
to have a program where all the residents are
in it to help one another.
RONA SILKISS: We have a great group of residents.
SAM REITER: Thank you for joining us
on this virtual tour.
We hope you've enjoyed visiting us and getting
a feel for the quality of training
that we provide our ophthalmology residents.
If you have any questions or wish to contact us,
you can explore our website or reach out
to our residency coordinator.
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