Fellowships:

• UTSW Medical Center - Dallas 734.65
• International Fellowship 736.58
• General information for fellowship applicants

Cornea, Cataract, External Disease and Keratorefractive Surgery Fellowship: 734.65

Purpose: The purpose of the fellowship is to provide intensive clinical post-residency specialty training in Corneal and Keratorefractive Surgery and External Disease for those individuals who wish to devote their future academic or private practice to this sub-specialty area of Ophthalmology.

Duration of Fellowship: A minimum of one-year is required for 734.65; preference is given to two-year applicants. Additional opportunity for in-depth research and more advanced clinical training is provided in the second year.

Description of Program: The program provides outstanding, hands-on training in the seven major areas of corneal, keratorefractive, and anterior segment surgery and diseases:

1. Corneal surgery including penetrating keratoplasty alone, IntraLase enabled keratoplasty, DSEK variants in combination with other anterior segment procedures such as combined glaucoma and cataract surgery, lamellar keratoplasty, and homologous or autologous keratoepithelioplasty limbal stem cell grafts, amniotic membrane grafts, temporary keratoprosthesis, and eyelid oculoplastic surgery;

2. External diseases including the diagnosis and management of all types of infections, immune, traumatic and protozoan diseases;

3. Contact lens, corneal topography, keratoconus, and management of lens-related complications;

4. Refractive surgery including excimer laser, PRK, PTK, LASIK, LTK, IntraLase, intra-corneal rings (Intacs) and management of surgically induced astigmatism;

5. Eye banking (methods and administration); and

6. Small-incision, clear-corneal phacoemulsification cataract surgery, with new presbyopic and toric IOLs; and

7. Diagnostic confocal microscopy

The five corneal faculty preceptors have very active sub-specialty practices covering all of these areas and experienced track records in training previous fellows.  Fellows have hands-on involvement in all cases, and are provided the opportunity to perform many surgical procedures as primary surgeon, including phaco, PK, , DSEK, PRK, LASIK and wavefront-guided custom ablations.  There is structured interaction with residents in a very busy, high-volume training program that utilizes Parkland Memorial Hospital, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Children's Medical Center Dallas, and the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

In addition, the preceptors admit private patients to both of the UT Southwestern University Hospitals - Zale Lipshy and St. Paul.  All hospitals have fully equipped operating rooms.  Clinics are equipped with state-of-the-art technology including computerized corneal topography, Pentacam, in vivo confocal microscopy, advanced ultrasound, ophthalmic lasers, and anterior segment OCT.  A dedicated refractive eye surgery center established in conjunction with the UT Southwestern University Hospital - St. Paul provides laboratory and primary surgical experience in PRK, LASIK, PTK and LTK. The laser center is equipped with the latest model VISX Star4^TM with Wavefront guided ablation, Allegretto excimer laser, and Intralase capable of treating myopia, hyperopia, plus myopic and hyperopic astigmatic correction and mixed astigmatism. All lasers have been upgraded to allow wavefront-guided custom ablations. The latest microkeratomes and/or Intralase are used in LASIK procedures.  The fellows will be certified on two lasers, as well as Intralase.  Intra-corneal rings (Intacs) are also performed.

2007-2008 actual training experience indicates that the fellows performed approximately 150 penetrating keratoplasties, 180 small-incision phacoemulsifications; and 80 LASIK and PRK cases as primary surgeon.

Appointment: Prospective Cornea Fellows are required to sign a Memorandum of Appointment, which contains a restrictive covenant.  For further information on the restrictive covenant, please contact the Education Office for the Department of Ophthalmology at 214-648-3848.

Preceptors:

James P. McCulley , M.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C. Ophth (U.K.)
H. Dwight Cavanagh, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S.
R. Wayne Bowman, M.D.
Steven M. Verity, M.D.
Vinod Mootha, M.D.

International Fellowship: 736.58

736.58 (International Fellowship) is a two-year minimum clinical and research-training program.  This fellowship provides opportunity for directed research as well as intensive clinical training in the major areas of corneal transplantation and anterior segment surgery and diseases, external diseases, keratorefractive surgery.  Five corneal preceptors have active sub-specialty practices covering all major areas.  Highly motivated candidates must have oral and written command of the English language.

Fully funded positions at resident pay level are available and dependent on ECFMG/USMLE certification.  All international candidates must have plans to return to their home country after training.  Please note that the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center will accept only ECFMG sponsored J-1 visas for this position.

General Information for Fellowship Candidates

Research Opportunities: Previous experience indicates that one-year fellows will be involved in clinically related research projects of specific focus and short duration.  Each of the preceptors has ongoing projects, and fellows are free to choose their involvement.  At any one time, there are a large number of ongoing clinical research trials within the department in which fellows are actively involved, including both surgical (PRK, LASIK) and medical treatment and basic laboratory studies.  In-depth involvement in one or more trials is encouraged.  Additionally, there are ten basic scientists in the department with established research interests in the cornea or anterior segment of the eye.  Each has a fully equipped laboratory with ongoing funded projects available to participating fellows.  In general, however, in-depth laboratory research is most effectively accomplished in the two-year fellowship.

Pre-requisites: Fellows must obtain a Texas license before beginning the fellowship.  This process can take up to six months.  Fellows cannot be paid until licensure has been completed. 

Stipends: Competitive salary stipends are available and are established according to the number of previous years of post-graduate training and current institutional policies of the University of Texas System.

Application Process:

Cornea fellowship program applicants must register and submit an application through the SFMatch Central Application System (CAS).  Please refer to the SFMatch website (http://www.sfmatch.org) to register for the match and read about the new process for applying to Ophthalmology Fellowship training in 2008. Once registered, you can view our program listing on the SFMatch directory website.

Applications are due by September 1st.  Personal, on-site interviews are required and are granted by invitation only.  Invitations are issued via e-mail using the address provided on the application.  Candidates invited to interview may be requested to submit a CV, photo and supplemental application.  Applications received after September 1st will be considered for interviews on a space-available basis. 

Interview Logistics:

Interviews are conducted on Fridays during September, October, and November. We will conduct our 2008 interviews on the following Fridays:

October 3, 2008
October 10, 2008
November 14, 2008 (International Cornea Fellowship Candidates)

Interviewees should plan to arrive in Dallas on Thursday evening in time to attend an informal reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (hotel details below).  This is an informal get together so please dress comfortably! 

Plan to allow one and one-half hours between your flight arrival and hotel check-in.  Additional details about the following day's interview process will be announced during the reception.  The interview day can last until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, so please schedule departing flights accordingly.

Hotel/Transportation

A block of rooms has been reserved for interviewees at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the special rate of $69.00 per night.  When making your reservations, be sure to request the UT Southwestern rate.

Crowne Plaza - Dallas Market Center
7050 North Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX  75247
Main Number:  214-630-8500

The Crowne Plaza offers complimentary transportation to/from Love Field Airport.  Call the hotel's main number upon arrival at the airport and request pick-up service.  Cab service and Super Shuttle (www.supershuttle.com) are two options for those flying into the DFW airport.

Transportation to the University on Friday morning and back to the hotel or Love Field on Friday afternoon will be provided by the hotel.  More details about this will be available at the Thursday evening reception.

Additional Information:

Questions may be directed to the Education Office in the Ophthalmology Department at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas  75390-9057
Phone 214-648-3848
Fax:  214-645-9482
E-mail: OphthEdu@UTSouthwestern.edu.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is an equal opportunity employer.  Those with diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.