Activities Organised by SSO Young Ophthalmologist (YO) Chapter December 2020-December 2021
36th Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmolgy (APAO) Congress, 5 –11 September 2021
The APAO YO symposium was held during the 36th APAO congress on 7th September 2021, co-organised by SSO YO chapter and YO societies from across the Asia Pacific region. Chaired by A/Prof Marcus Ang and Dr Fang Seng Kheong, the APAO YO session involved YOs from the region participating in paper and video presentations, with awards given out for best paper presentation, best surgical video, best YO, best YO mentor, and top YO Instagram influencer. The symposium concluded with a YO virtual party in which YOs re-connected with and made new friends after almost 2 years of COVID restrictions and travel ban.
SSO Young Ophthalmologists Instagram Contest
SSO YO Chapter hosted its first SSO YO photo contest on Instagram in July 2021 as part of its efforts to keep the YO community engaged during this prolonged pandemic. YOs posted their most interesting clinical photos and artwork on the SSO YO Instagram, attracting more than 500 followers and more than 30 entries. Winning entries came from YOs across Singapore, including Dr Vanessa Lee from TTSH, Dr Caterhina Goenadi, Dr Nicole Chan and Dr Tina Shen from NUH, and Dr Shayne Tan from SNEC. Prizes were awarded to the top 5 entries, co-sponsored by SSO and Zeiss, and were also featured on APAO social media.
SSO YO x Singapore Ophthalmology Student’s Society (SOSS) Mentorship Programme
In July 2021, the SSOS, in collaboration with SSO YO Chapter, launched a mentorship programme aimed at promoting interest in Ophthalmology amongst medical students in Singapore, to facilitate guidance of medical students from all 3 medical schools in Singapore who are interested in ophthalmology as a future career, and to develop mentorship skills in our YOs. The collaboration has since organised 2 webinars: “Surviving and Thriving in Research” and “A Career in Ophthalmology” and matched more than 50 students and YO mentors to work on projects spanning research, community service and clinical attachments.
YO research collaboration
SSO YO chapter, in collaboration with YOs from Malaysia, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan, conducted a survey on young ophthalmologists’ perception of ophthalmology training during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how training for YOs were affected. 242 YOs participated in this survey across the Asia-Pacific region. The survey results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased patient load, reduced exposure to surgical training, and pushed educational activities to a digital format with pros and cons, and recommendations were made for academic institutions, professional bodies and YOs to collaborate and reinvent ophthalmic education in preparation for a prolonged pandemic. The report was published in Annals of Medicine. (Yong WWD, Koh TCV, Shen L, Misra DK, Leung WYJ, Chandrasekaran S, Chou HD, Ang HNM, Wong CW. A survey of young ophthalmologists' perception of training in Asia during COVID-19. Ann Acad Med Singap. 2021 Sep;50(9):729-732.)
Global YO Symposium 2020, 17 January 2020
The SSO YO Chapter organised its Inaugural Global YO Symposium as part of the Singapore- Malaysia Joint Meeting in Ophthalmology programme on 17 January 2020. The symposium attracted 180 attendees from Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and America, and several awards were given out, including Travel Grant Awards, Best Presentation Awards and YO Awards. The highlights of the programme include interactive YO debates, where topics such as ‘Should YO be trained to do Refractive Surgery’ or ‘Minimally invasive glaucoma Surgery’ and ‘Will AI replace Young Ophthalmologists in the future?’ were discussed as well as the Global YO session where YO leaders from the globe shared their experience on building the YO community in their respective countries. The discussion revealed great variation in the challenges faced by YOs in different geographic areas, and a live poll revealed that mentorship and the opportunity for global exposure through observerships and fellowships were unanimously sought after.
Global YO Poll Results: Summary
Dr Su Xin Yi (Singapore) and Dr Lawrence Iu (Hong Kong) were the recipients of the 2020 SSO YO awards, sponsored by Carl Zeiss.
The global YO events concluded on a high with the global YOs and their mentors enjoying a night of fun, laughter and games.