Week 1 - Rios

Saturday evening and I almost missed the Campus-to-Campus shuttle. There were many things that needed to get done in Ithaca, hence my late arrival. Towel around my neck, shades on my head and sandals, it appeared more as if I was going to the beach than to the city of lights.

By Monday, I was completely settled and ready to begin my summer immersion program. I met my mentor Dr. Mark Rosenblatt. He is an ophthalmologist that specializes in the cornea and once he found out about my interest in glaucoma, he introduced me to Dr. Anne Dematriades, a glaucoma specialist.

I came to summer immersion with the idea of spending as much time in the clinic and OR as possible. I begin my clinical experience Wednesday at Dr. Rosenblatt’s practice. Dress pants, nice shirt, tie, and white coat on, the appropriate attire for the clinical world. I spent my day with one of Rosenblatt’s residents who was operating the slit-lamp with the teaching scope, an extension that allows a second person to observed what the doctor is observing. A slit-lamp, in conjunction with a microscope, allows examination of the anterior and frontal posterior parts of the eye. As we were observing patients, the resident would explain certain observations and what they meant in terms of diagnosis. There were several Spanish speaking patients whose English was very limited, so I served as a translator as well.

Thursday was another day well spent at the clinic. Now with Dr. Dematriades who saw several glaucoma patients. I must say it was an eye opening experience. Of particular interest was the case of a late middle age gentleman with end-stage glaucoma whose eyesight was almost completely gone. The loss of vision has severely impacted his life and he has fallen into a severe depression. He is taking his medication properly and it is responding very positively but years of non-compliance lead to the severe stage he is in at the moment. Another relevant case is the one of a lovely older age lady whose intraocular pressure was much higher than normal. When asked if she had used her glaucoma eye-drops in the morning she said no and also could not remember if she used them last night. Glaucoma medication aims at lowering the intraocular pressure to decrease the rate at which the disease progresses. From this, it became clear that patient’s compliance is a huge issue with glaucoma eye-drops, as it has also been reported in the literature. I have experienced first-hand how the research I am doing in my PhD project can have a huge clinical impact.