Rotations
First year
Second year
Third year
Call
Call schedule is made by the residents after the first month. First-year
residents take first call and second-year residents serve as second
call. Both years, call is taken from home. All emergency surgery is done
by the second-year resident with the on-call attending physician.
Surgical Experience
Resident experience in performing eye surgery is extensive and is
distributed over the three-year training period. Most residents perform
well over 200 intraocular cases as the primary surgeon, including
topical clear cornea cataract extraction, glaucoma filtering surgery,
corneal transplantation, and vitrectomy. In addition, residents perform
a large number of strabismus procedures, scleral buckling operations,
and oculoplastic procedures. Training in phacoemulsification with
implantation of foldable intraocular lenses has become standard. Senior
residents routinely perform sutureless clear cornea phacoemulsification
under topical anesthesia.
Patients operated on by the residents include patients on the private
services of Duke as well as patients followed primarily by the residents
at the VA Hospitals. The surgical equipment in the VA operating rooms is
new and of the highest quality. In addition, a practice surgery room
with phacoemulsification equipment is maintained at the Eye Center for
use by the residents on a daily basis.
Facilities
Two buildings, directly adjacent to the main Duke Hospital, now house
the Duke Eye Center. The Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Building, originally
built in 1973 and expanded to 93,000-square-feet in 1990, contains all
of the Eye Center's primary care services except for the Pediatric and
Adult Strabisimus Service. On the third floor, six fully equipped and
modern operating rooms form the core of the center's surgery complex.
Other clinical services in the Wadsworth Building include
Electrophysiology, Contact Lenses, and a large Photography Service
staffed by four ophthalmic photographers.
Opened in April 2005, the Albert Eye Research Institute (AERI), a
five-story 72,000 square-foot state-of-the-art building, has two full
floors dedicated to cutting-edge research laboratory space. The other
three floors house the expanded Pediatric and Adult Strabisimus Service,
faculty offices, an auditorium, and a resource center.
The Eye Center maintains close affiliations with two regional Veterans
Administration Hospitals. Rotations at these institutions afford
residents the opportunity to care for patients with graduated levels of
autonomy. The VA Hospitals have active surgical programs.
The
Durham VA Medical Center is directly across the street from the Eye
Center. The outpatient eye clinic at the VA, which is located in the
recently built ambulatory care facility, is spacious and superbly
equipped. It includes six examination lanes, two laser rooms, a minor
procedures room, a photography room, a visual field room, a nursing
intake area, and a resident's room which serves as a combined library,
computer center, and lounge. The Ophthalmology Service operating room
and OR staff work full shifts three to four days per week. The equipment
in the operating room is state-of-the-art, including instrumentation for
anterior segment surgery, advanced vitrectomy, and endolaser.
The Asheville
VA is located in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the most scenic
areas in the Southeastern United States. Second-year residents rotating
through Asheville reside in a comfortable apartments near the medical
center. The rotation is jointly organized by the chief of ophthalmology
at the Asheville VA and by the Duke Eye Center. Resident
responsibilities include general clinics, subspecialty clinics, and one
to two days of surgery per week.
 | 
