Cornea Fellowship review @ All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh

Duration 1 year

1 fellow taken per year

Stipend- 1.29 L 

This fellowship has fees- 80k approx, caution deposit 20k included in this (refunded)

Selection- Entrance exam followed by dept assessment- only those who clear both are taken as fellows

You enter Cornea dept directly from first month, no general Ophthal or other speciality postings

You are started on TPKs from first month itself along with other small corneal surgeries.

Once you've done 20 TPKs, you start getting steps for optical KPs.. you continue to do TPKs and opticals for the rest of the year.

You also get good chances for other cornea surgeries like patch grafts, trauma repairs, ocular surface procedures (AMG, MMG, SLET etc)

Cataract training not included.. if you know SICS, you may get ~5-10 cases in a year.. if you know phaco, they'll give you approx same number but if you don't know phaco, you'll get only SICS.. no phaco training given.

No refractive setup, hence no training for the same.

You are one fellow posted under the one main consultant in the dept so it's a good one on one training. 

Ma'am is proactive and liberal in giving all cases to the fellow.

Can expect steps in few lamellar cases towards the end of fellowship (provided you are doing optical KP well).

Work timings 9 am- 4/ 5 pm

All consultants are friendly, dept is not toxic.

Sundays off unless you have ward rounds.

OT is 2-3 times a week.

Public holidays off 

No peripheral postings 

Night duties- once a month (rarely twice a month)

No camp duties/ enucleation duties

You will be responsible for grading all donor corneas- the eye bank setup here is good.

Academics- regular weekly classes.

You are also encouraged to attend conferences and present papers and posters.

Overall, very good fellowship for someone looking just for Cornea exposure. Even though it's only 1 year, you're an independent cornea surgeon by the time you finish.