Medical Retina Long-Term Fellowship review @ Chaithanya Eye Hospital and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Duration: 1 year

During the first two months, fellows are mainly posted in the OPD, where the work primarily involves general patient work-up of retina consultants, FFA reporting, and B-scans.

 Opportunities to examine post-dilatation patients are relatively limited during this period, but fellows can evaluate non-paying patients.

The program provides good exposure to the diagnostic side, including SD-OCT, SS-OCT, SS-OCTA, FFA, and other investigations. From the fourth month onward, fellows begin performing retinal lasers, with a decent number of procedures such as PRP and barrage laser.

From around the sixth month, fellows are posted in the injection clinic, where they usually get exposure to approximately 150–200 intravitreal injections during the fellowship.

This fellowship is particularly beneficial for those who already have good postgraduate exposure and are comfortable with indirect ophthalmoscopy (IDO). The academic program is very strong, with at least 2-3 classes conducted every week. For those interested in research, this is a good place, as fellows are encouraged and supported in research activities.

Work timings 8:00 AM to around 7:00–7:30 PM every day. 

Fellows start getting independent OP consultations after six months, and the workload tends to become somewhat more hectic during that period.

Fellows selected per session

The number of fellows depends on the number of applications received. There is no fixed number of seats, usually 2-3 fellows / year

Selection is done through an online interview only. After the interview, candidates are informed whether they have been selected.

Fellows are usually taken twice a year, typically in April and October.

Stipend- ₹40,000 per month

Admission fees of ₹1 lakh needs to be paid at the beginning of the course. Not refunded.

Dept environment- The consultants are approachable and the department is quite hectic due to the large patient load. 

For consultants' patients, the anterior segment work-up is usually done by PGs and fellows.

Most of the time PGs are not available, so fellows have to handle the work-up, documentation, and reply letter writing themselves. Because of the busy OPD schedule, opportunities to do fundus exams on these worked-up patients can be limited.

Duties- There are about 3–4 on-call duties per month, mainly for retina-related cases. PGs will inform the fellows if any retina related cases comes in, and fellows attend only when required. 

There is also one Sunday duty per month, which is usually on-call. 

Medical Retina fellows are not required to attend camps.

Cataract surgery training is not included in this fellowship.

There is limited exposure to ROP, usually during the last two months, and this typically includes around four days of ROP postings.

Uvea cases are present, but the exposure is relatively limited.