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Message From the Vice Chair
It is hard to believe almost a year has passed since I assumed my new role as Vice Chair of Education here at the John A. Moran Eye Center. It is in every way my dream role.
I chose a career in academic medicine because I believe in training the next generation of ophthalmologists, and more specifically, I chose academic medicine at Moran because I believe there is no other institution that has its unique combination of visionary leadership, unparalleled clinical learning, and in my opinion, the world’s best cataract teachers.
I was fortunate to assume leadership of a program that has already enjoyed tremendous success. Doximity consistently ranks our residency among its Top 10 thanks to our dedicated faculty, innovative approach to training, and cutting-edge resident research opportunities supported by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation of Utah. As I transitioned from dreaming about this job to living this job, many people asked me how I could possibly improve a program that had already achieved such tremendous success. I found the answer by turning to those most invested in our program: our residents and fellows. With them as partners, the academic team has placed an emphasis on several new areas.
We are beginning to create a revamped, longitudinal surgical curriculum that brings a hands-on approach to surgical teaching to residents at every level of training. We based this new approach on our nationally recognized and highly successful flipped classroom didactic lecture model. The three-year results of that model are shared in this edition of Education FOCUS. We also expanded our fellowship training with the addition of two new fellowships led by renowned faculty members Steffen Schmitz-Valckenberg, MD, and Robert Kersten, MD, FACS, FASOPRS: medical retina and oculoplastics.
It has been an amazing year of growth. In 2023, we received 685 residency program applications. As we train the next generation, we will dream even bigger.
Rachel Simpson, MD
Vice Chair of Education, John A. Moran Eye Center Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah
