Anne Xuan-Lan Nguyen
Canada ― Anne Xuan-Lan Nguyen, MD, CM Candidate, joined a few trainees in ophthalmology at the McGill University and other Canadian instititutions to develop a grassroots initiative called the Canadian Ophthalmology Mentorship Program (COMP), a "novel model for providing near-peer mentorship between medical students interested in ophthalmology and ophthalmology resident physicians." Even though it was first launched in the fall of 2021, an updated version was launched in September 2022. This iteration not only paired medical students of all levels with ophthalmology residents, but also provided them with educational webinars from ophthalmology staff on "topics ranging from equity" to "mindfulness and meditation, community versus academic practice, and day-in-the-life among various subspecialists."
For both years, the program has paired 250 students with 75 residents. Their monthly webinars have had 41 - 98 attendees. The program was also further "optimized by integrating an automated matching algorithm to avoid peer rating bias and logistical burden." Lastly, COMP was awarded the 2023 McGill Learner Award for Teaching Innovation, a true honor to Nguyen and the team.
Nguyen hopes that in the future, the program will "include the development of a stream for medical students from underrepresented backgrounds and reinforcing strategies to foster inclusivity and safety within mentoring groups."
Learn more about this innovative program
Burak Mergen
Turkey and Germany ― Burak Mergen's, MD, FEBO, outreach project focused on creating a webinar that encouraged medical students in Turkey to consider studying eye and vision research. The presentation explored topics on:
- a career in science as a medical doctor
- experiences abroad during medical school, residenecy, and as an ophthalmologist
- writing a CV and motivation letter
- constructing effective emails
- career opportunities in ophthalmology
Mergen recalled from his SciComms lessons that sharing experiences is an effective way of reaching one's audience and in a way, growing the ophthalmology field. He expressed that typically medical students during their first years aren't knowledgeable about career options as vision scientists in Turkey and abroad. Thus, he presented on his colleagues' and his own experiences during their medical school years, residency, and currently. It was particularly important for Mergen to present about his journey since during the program he had to move from Turkey to Germany.
Even though the webinar was virtual, he still incorporated interactive activities such as attendee questionnaire, CV and motivation letter preparation. He used the questionnaire to familiarize himself with the audience and tailor the webinar towards their needs. Lastly, he promoted the event on multiple social media platforms. All of this proved successful! At the conclusion of the event, all 48 attendees remained online and had so many questions. Additionally, he was able to increase the interest rate towards a career in ophthalmology from 8/48 (beginning of the event) to 40/48 (after the event). The remaining 8 indicated that were unsure. Mergen expressed that this "was a great exercise" in implementing "what I learned from the" SCTF program.
Claudia Thieme
Germany ― Claudia Thieme, MD, FEBO, noticed that her patients desired to understand their condition, glaucoma, how to prevent progression and the importance of ophthalmological examinations. This interest was connected to Thieme's own research on "anterior segment OCT imaging and possible future outline with artificial intelligence to quantify imaging and implement deep learning in glaucomatology in order to understand progression of glaucoma", so it was an exciting challenge for her to figure out how to translate her study to a lay audience.
She created flyers for promotion and distributed them around the outpatient clinic. This drew the attention of patients who were admitted to the ophthalmological ward for the weekend to measure the fluid pressure of their eye. Thieme provided a presentation at the clinic for them where she they had time for Q&A as well as one-on-one conversations with each attendee/patient.
"During my outreach event I encountered a high demand of need of patient education for glaucoma." Thieme shared, "simple language and visual elements like pictures were key elements in gaining a patients' interest."
Cris Martin Jacoba
United States ― Cris Martin Jacoba, MD, planned a teaching session for his 30 medical students at Harvard. The session's, Diabetic Retinopathy and Artificial Intelligence, goals were to describe the burden of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy, supply a historical view of diabetes and share his research on how artificial intelligence can help improve retinal screening.
Jacoba noted that developing this session took a lot of research and preparation, however, one challenge was ensuring that he provided both an engaging and educational session. Hence, when he reviewed recent diabetic retinopathy data, he included appealing graphs and infographics. For the historical view, he talked about iconic historical figures such as Drs. Banting, Best, Lloyd M. and Lloyd P. Aiello. He introduced "the concept of artificial intelligence ethics...potentials and pitfalls of artificial intelligence as medical devices". Finally, he connected all of these by sharing his research, automated machine learning models for diabetic retinopathy screening using handheld fundus cameras in a low-resource community screening program and approaches to help reduce the burden of vision loss from diabetes.
Jacoba received a lot of positive feedback, especially with his one-on-ones with students after the session. He voiced that he even learned from them by the several questions they asked. He shared that science communication could actually be fun and gratifying "as long as we come prepared, understand our audience, and...consider using historical anecdotes and pictures which helped pique the interest of my students."
Eman Alzghoul
Australia ― PhD student Eman Alzghoul's outreach project was part of a bigger event, M&H Experience Day 2022, organized by the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of New South Wales. This main event is geared towards students interested in health careers and studies. Alzghoul was exhilarated to participate in this since it was the first in-person activity she organized since COVID. Her target audience were students in years 10 and 11 (ages 15-17) that were attracted to current vision research, vision science-related careers, eye and visual perception, and health and medicine.
The event consisted of two elements, an introductory presentation on vision science by an ophthalmologist and vision researcher, Michele Madigan, BOptom (Hons), PhD, and herself, then a series of eight interactive activities for the students to complete. These activities were broken down into seven stations with the eighth activity occurring in parallel with the seventh station:
Station 1: Eye Wonder
Students observed various "eye-catching" images taken by Madigan.
Station 2: Tricks your eye
Optical illusion cards were showcased and students were asked to answer questions posted on each card like "which dark line is longer?" In this station, students "gained a deeper understanding of the role of vision in perceiving our surroundings."
Station 3: How do we see color?
Alzghoul explained the basics of color vision, how humans perceive colors and why, and how animals see it. Then students participated in color-matching games, "tested their color vision, and matched each color with the animal that could see that color."
Station 4: Eye black hole
Students discovered how pupils operate, how they change with light, the concept of pinholes, and how pupil shapes are different based on animal lifestyles and environments. The students used a pen torch and watched how pupil size changed when it was illuminated.
Station 5: Human eye (inside and outside)
Students learned about light and vision, the ocular structure, optics, and refraction in different species. They had to match each part of the eye with the accurate name on the worksheet.
Station 6: What happens in cataract eyes?
Different eye diseases like cataracts, how they develop, and treatments were addressed in this station. Afterwards, students got to experience how cataract patients see the world by wearing multiple stimulating glasses.
Station 7: Stereopsis and 3D vision
Students got to comprehend "our ability to use both eyes" simultaneously "at the highest level." They attempted different stereopsis tests and experienced 3D vision with special glasses.
Draw a card
As the final activity, Alzghoul asked students to pick a card from two categories, Fun Facts or Who am I? Each card had a description of a part of the eye or fun fact related to vision. Students were requested to read their card to another participant and have them answer it as they did.
Alzghoul said that the event exceeded her expectations. She noted that the students actively participated and asked so many questions during and after the stations. She had three students contact her directly to inquire about vision science courses and how to get into them. Lastly, she received feedback from the M&H event planners that her session was "informative and useful."
When asked about best practices gathered from this experience, Alzghoul said the Science Communication Training Fellowship "undoubtedly has been a turning point in my career as a researcher and future educator. It has significantly enhanced my science communication experience, broadened my perspective, and increased my capacity to plan, organize, and deliver science events."
Ester Reina-Torres
United Kingdom ― Ester Reina-Torres, PhD, took her outreach project down the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) path. She led a discussion around the book Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez to raise awareness about the gender data gap. She felt that to make actual change, she should start by reaching out to those that could make a difference in closing that gap, individuals involved in designing and implementing research. Reina-Torres hosted the discussion with members of the Department of Bioengineering, students and staff at the Imperial College London (ICL). "I decided that my colleagues at Imperial would be a good audience because we, as scientists, are currently part of the problem," said Reina-Torres, "so we can be part of the solution."
She chose an informal setting, her department's monthly Science Fridays, where science related topics are shared in a casual setting with drinks and pizza, followed by a social event. She thought this format would allow her to promote interaction amongst the audience during a less formal presentation. Some topics she touched on during her presentation were:
- The definition of the gender data gap, its general causes and implications in the medical realm.
- Examples of how the "male experience" is universal.
- Why it is important that experimental design and data analysis include female data.
- How the lack of data from women is affecting artificial intelligence outputs.
The event had a great turnout with more than half the registrants in attendance and multiple people participating in her activities. Reina-Torres voiced that the majority of the comments were on the importance of this issue and how many of them, mostly men, weren't aware of it. She said "stepping outside from my research was challenging...especially trying to select which stories from the book to include, and how to link them together to make sure that the message...came across...regardless, I am very glad of the outcome."
Itika Garg
United States ― Itika Garg, MD, utilized social media to circulate her lab's, (Harvard Retinal Imaging Lab) published results and novel techniques on non-invasive retinal imaging amongst the ophthalmology community. She eventually expanded her content to include photos of the lab members, monthly gatherings, and educational posts that covered both imaging and retina. She discovered that by broadening her content, it helped grow and maintain the interest of her audience as well as intrigue undergraduate students.
Garg also used hashtags and noted how much it helped further their reach. Over the last year, she has published 98 unique posts along with 88 stories. She even recruited various lab members to share the posts on their own social media profiles to assist in promoting the page. The outcome was pleasing to her:
- They gained 1,158 followers
- Had an average reach of 2,500 accounts per post
- Had 30-50 profile visits and accounts engagement per post along with up to 10-20 shares and saves for each post
- Received about 20 applications from individuals interested in sharing these posts through social media messaging or emails that cited the page.
"I learnt how social media can be a very convenient tool available to anyone with a smartphone to self-advocate your research achievements or even recruit the next generation of passionate researchers, which can ultimately contribute to this field and help us all grow." Garg said, "This has helped us connect with some great mentors, receive feedback and suggestions on many of the research aims and results, as well as questions by {the} general population on what our research could mean in the future."
Janelle Tong
Australia ― Janelle Tong, BSci, BOptom, presented on 'Ocular Imaging: Current Concepts and Looking to the Future', providing an overview of developments in ocular imaging as well as promising technologies to 40 optometrists. Her presentation format was a collaborative webinar with fellow optometrist Sophia Zhang. This was part of the Centre for Eye Health's first online and interactive event.
Along with their talk, they included engrossing activities for their attendees, such as worksheets and four small group discussion sessions. The webinar was successful, garnering sufficient interaction between participants durng dicussions and they received positive feedback after the webinar.
Tong noted there were some challenges encountered, such as "last-minute changes to the presentation format...due to requirements per optometric continuing education guidelines in Australia" of which they received late notice. However, she expressed that her "main lessons and best practice tips taken from this experience were that adaptablility is key, and to save some time aside prior to the presentation in case changes are required."
Maria Gelmi
Netherlands ― Maria Gelmi's, MD, goal was to explain to high schoolers how vision works, the effect of some eye diseases, and introduce them to research in vision. Thus, she organized a presentation for three clases of A-level students at the British School in the Netherlands.
Gelmi started each session with a quiz about the eyes, then explained the functions of the main parts of the eyes. She discussed some eye diseases and ended with a hands-on activity to assist the students in understanding the various career paths they could take as a researcher. She also incorporated interactive exercises throughout the sessions.
The sessions went well and had students showing interest leading them to ask many questions. The teachers were also intrigued and frequently asked questions during and after the sessions.
Gelmi shared "it was a challenging experience because I am not used to speaking to teenagers and I am usually not comfortable speaking in public. However, it got easier as I was going through the presentation."
Paul McCann
United States ― Paul McCann, MBChB, MRes, PhD, developed a dry eye patient leaflet with the goal of providing dry eye related educational information that was understandable and accessible for those living in Colorado.
McCann consulted with various stakeholders and dry eye experts regarding the content and format of the leaflet. He met with patient advocacy representatives and clinicians. Once it was done, he distributed the leaflet to mutliple optometrists and ophthalmologists to garner feedback. After receiving the feedback and amending the leaflet, he sent it to Darren Gregory, MD, a dry eye clinical lead at the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center in Aurora, Colo.
Finally, the leaflets were distrubuted to patients by technicians at the UCHealth Eye Center when patients were checked in. This proved to be a great tactic as the patients could read the leaflets while they waited to be seen by their doctor. He also gave patients the opportunity to provide feedback that he could incorporate.
McCann noted that, "In (the) future, we can make efforts to accommodate low vision patients and non-English speakers using online tools and the departmental website. Overall, I think a science communication need was successfully identified and addressed but the implementation still needs work to incorporate the various feedback."
View the dry eye patient leaflet
Tsai-Chu Yeh
Taiwan ― Tsai-Chu Yeh, MD, MTM, provided eye care information to 40 elderly people enrolled in a community-based education healthcare program. Yeh wanted to present this information in hopes of encouraging them to receive crucial eye services.
Included in her presentation were some ocular diseases related to the aging population that took into account their particular needs, possible complicated health conditions, behavior, socioeconomic and cultural context, in addition to their ability to comprehend information given at eye exams. To measure her success, she provided the audience with questionnaires plus had a question and answer session. Additionally, she held one-on-one conversations with many of the audience members after the presentation.
Yeh stated that, "I've learned that people who have received good eye care experience can convince many others to come from treatment. Patients who have personal experience are very important as they can convince others to receive necessary tretment early on. Future events inviting patients to talk about their experiences might be helpful."
Xiao Lin
United States ― Xiao Lin, MBBS, MS, noticed that science outreach efforts often overlooked the aging population and felt it was critical that seniors have a basic comprehension of visual science. Her outreach event sought to "inspire, educate and generate enthusiasm among seniors regarding age-related eye diseases", particularly cataracts. She presented to 40 seniors at a location where they were comfortable, the West Houston Chinese Church.
Another way she connected with her audience was by providing slides in both English and Mandarin. Lin also made sure her talk incorporated topics to which the audience could relate, such as the Chinese Lunar New Year which was occurring around that time. She talked about the vision system, explained how the eye works, provided tips on how to maintain good eye health, and discussed age-related eye conditions such as cataracts.
Lin's presentation was successful and she engaged with many of the audience members in one-on-one conversations post session. One individual even shared their own experience with cataract surgery during the Q&A session. Attendees were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the session. Many expressed a need for a session summary to help them with memory retention.
"Lessons learned from the event include the importance of targeting the senior population in science outreach and incorporating practice tips to encourage healthy behaviors," Lin shared, "{as well as} inviting a guest speaker in advance and providing ample time for questions and answers."
Yanhui Ma
United States ― Yanhui Ma, PhD, used her outreach event to motivate high school students (10th-12th grade) from Northland High School in Ohio to pursue a career in vision science and ophthalmology. She worked with an organization called HEADS UP; their focus is on supplying high school students with opportunities to learn about the medical field. For the month of November, Ophthalmology was their specialty spotlight.
Ma created a station, AI in Opthalmology, for their education outreach event. She provided a hands-on and interactive experience for the students through imaging devices, presentation, and coding. She used the imaging device to show them what the back of the eye looks like and how to take an image of it. Her interactive presentation talked about artificial intelligence and how it can predict a person's age, gender, smoking status, blood pressure and glucose level. It also had lots of questions and answers for the students to participate in. Lastly, she showed them coding basics.
At the end of the event, the students were asked to indicate which of the five stations were their favorite, and her station selected by the majority of students. Ma was extremely happy with the results and added she learned that "interactive learning is a great way of engaging high school students." Additionally, she said "participating in this well-organized workshop helped me understand the outreach process, and I plan to keep participating in various outreach activities to help inspire K-12 students, especially from historically underrepresented groups, and also get more involved in organizing such outreach activities in the future."
