It's a purely cataract fellowship. I did it for 1 year. The op load is not busy so they take only 2-3 fellows per year. Selection is by interview. Stipend was 40,000. They only take in as fellows who have done at least 750 SICS beforehand- this is minimum requirement. They start you on SICS and then progress from there. I ended up operating 2000+ SICS and 500 phacos. It's a good place to do if you want more case numbers and you're looking only for cataract. Also, this is a purely SICS and phaco fellowship, there is no refractive training here. You get to operate all kinds of cataract and also do topical phaco as well.  Sunday duties and night duties are on rotation. No camp duties.

Duration= 3 yrs They have 4 main campuses (+1 new campus started recently but not taking fellows) so the number of fellows taken in each campus varies, usually 2-4 VR fellows per campus 4 main campuses are KAR campus (the main one) Vijayawada campus Vishakapatnam campus Bhubaneshwar campus Training is the same in all campuses, the management decides where you are alloted for fellowship. You do not have a say in it. Selection- exam + interview 1st 9 months - cataract training, they train you to be fully competent so that u can handle even advanced cases Next 1 year is spent at one of their secondary centres where you manage it entirely and do cataracts the whole year. Their secondary centres see crowds of patients every day. Then you come back to your parent campus and start VR training- this is the last 15 months. Academics- there are regular classes, happens in the main KAR campus, fellows in other campuses attend it online. OP is very hectic, you see a wide variety of cases Good surgical hands-on in all kinds of retina cases, majority of their consultants are usually fellows who join back after finishing, they are your primary trainers, towards the end you get to operate many retina cases independently. ROP exposure is good, you get lasers and intravit injections in ROP babies also. VR dept on non-OT days may finish by 8 pm but on OT days work can go on as late as 1 am at night, even later on some days because they keep operating emergencies through the night as they come. LVP doesn't hold camps- all their patients come directly or from their many secondary centres. Stipend is 50k for 1st 2 years, 70k for 3rd yr. So to summarize, their VR program is - Cataract training in first 9 months - Then 1 year of service at their secondary centre  - Then 15 months of formal VR training  Some rules and regulations in LVP- You have to punch in before  7 am every day. If you punch in at 7 or even 7.01 you will be marked absent for whole day. Similarly you have  to punch out, if you don't, then also you are marked absent for that day. You are given 19 days of leave every year but if your leave exceeds 19 days then you will work extra days to finish your fellowship- for every 1 day extra of leave taken, you have to work 2 days in return.  So if your leave has exceeded 5 days, you will have to work 10 days past your fellowship due date to complete it. So main takeaway point here- never ever ever forget to punch in before 7 am daily . Drop out rate in LVP is high, there are reports of fellows in diff depts quitting fellowshp midway. For eg, they had 7 cornea fellows join one year and by the end of fellowship, only 2 of the original were still left. Penalty for leaving fellowship in between is not huge fines or return of stipends earned. You get blacklisted. That's it. Goodbye. For ever.  Non-vegetarian food not allowed at all in campus.

To get into the fellowship, there is an entrance exam done remotely (online), if you qualify then the 2nd round is in 2 days at Hyderabad centre. Day 1- There will be MCQ exam  Day 2- Face to face interview.  When I did my fellowship entrance, we had to fill in our first and 2nd choice and depending on the MCQ score and interview performance, they announced a list of selected candidates.  A lot of changes in the fellowship program now. However, the basic outline is that any speciality fellowship you choose, you will have a compulsory rotation in all specialities. One gets good exposure in all specialities, both OP and OT exposure is excellent. However, this depends on the campus you get allotted in and the mentor you are assigned.  There is compulsory secondary centre posting where one will have to independently handle a peripheral centre- this builds the foundation to run a centre independently in the future. You will be posting and operating cases everyday for 6 months - 1 year. So before you are posted to the secondary centre, you would have been trained in SICS and Phaco and would be independently operating plus managing complications in your fellow OR.   Constant reviews and evaluations would be done and depending on your performance they will post you in high volume or low volume centre. Post the secondary centre, your performance would be reviewed and you will have an interview or direct selection to the speciality of your choice. Again, which centre and under which consultant would be decided by the team.  The final yr one would be proficient in the speciality of their choice (again depends on your mentor and your centre) and the last 6 months, one is treated like a consultant itself.  Senior doctors are extremely approachable. Anyone can email anyone regarding a case and they respond almost immediately.  It is a well structured program and working hours from 7am to 8pm on most days and sometimes even later until OT finishes. Daily morning classes are taken seriously, attendance is reviewed. There will be presentations. Journal clubs and grand rounds. Overall LVPEI is an excellent centre for overall academic and surgical training. However not everyone fits in easily- there is absolutely no personal time after work and holidays are 10-15 per year. Everyone is a workaholic and if you have similar temperament then it’s the best place to be in. It is entirely the fellow's responsibility to make the most of the fellowship.  You will have to study and put in a lot of hard work and I’m sure that the fellowship would be fruitful. However if one is looking only for a certificate, then pls don’t choose LVP.  If you are seeking a job post fellowship then they even take you in. The whole system is time tested and running successfully, so one will have to fit into the system and cannot question the system.  I can assure you that there is no rigid hierarchy and no bullying by senior fellows.  The whole system works on patient care and pt well being.  Small mistakes which we might not feel significant is reviewed seriously in LVP. Each case you operate will be your responsibility, any issue or complications must be documented well. If there is any lapse in it, then they take it seriously. You cannot fake the outcomes etc. They even monitor your surgical time taken per case etc.  Overall I think it’s the best institution to do a fellowship. In LVP everything is given and anything can be done, provided you do it diligently and do it well.  For some the experience might be too much like repeating PG all over again. They have rules for everything and you will have to obey it.  Things like no AC in rooms, even in peak summer .  No washing machine. No iron box.  No induction stove. Food can be a problem as the canteen that caters to pts is same and shuts in the night.  Things might have changed now .

This is the only fellowship in this hospital, no other specialty fellowships. Duration= 18 months 1 fellow per session Selection by interview, intake based on when present fellow is finishing. Stipend 25k No phaco training  Starts with med retina work- lasers, B-scans in first 3 months  From 4th month onwards you start getting steps in retina cases  There are 5 retina consultants and you are posted 2 monthly with each of them, you tag with them whole day Academics- some classes+ You get mostly steps during the fellowship and based on your skill level, you get to do some independent cases towards the end. ROP exposure is ok, you get to do some ROP lasers but no intravit injections given. Work timings 9-7 pm, not hectic. No night calls or Sunday duties. But you will be posted for Sunday general ophthal camps.

-Duration - 3 months (Short Term) -Fees - 1 lac (No stipend) -Intake - 1 fellow at a time, waiting period varies from 3-9 months usually. -Good hands on with OPD patients, Lasers, OCT, FFA.  -Also get good number of intravitreal injections. -A fellow can see every Retina patient that walks in.  -No night duties, No camps, No stipend -Work Hours -9 am to 6 pm It's a very good course, for 2 months the exposure is intense and since they take only 1 fellow every month, you get to see and learn a lot.

Exposure to all types of retina cases at Aravind is good, we will get lots lasers and injections including in ROP cases. Surgery number is also reasonable... 2 weeks Uvea and ROP + Ocular Oncology training included, there after you will be going for ROP screening in the periphery where you will again see good number of ROPs. At the end of fellowship you will be confident with basic cases but you won't get PDR membrane cases and macular hole (ILM PEELING STEP), lot of fellows, number may vary between fellows. Work load is huge, but minimal toxicity in the department... no single mentor, OT rotation is there.

My 1 month experience in SICS training at HV Desai was extremely valuable. They have a well structured training programme. Faculty is also approachable. I got 26 cases and was able to do cases independently by the end of session. I would highly recommend HV Desai for new SIC trainees. It’s a great platform to enhance surgical skill and eliminate OT phobia. During initial 15 days, trainer used to stand by our side throughout the case.. when they get confidence in the trainee, they let the trainee to do the case and we can call them if we feel the need, they are present in the same OT.

2 months duration Day starts at 8 am, you will go to OT and get trained in how to do direct gonio on pts who will undergo MIGS procedures You do direct gonio on the pt before starting surgery and then another direct gonio after surgery to note changes in AC post op. No hands-on for MIGS procedure per se, only observation After OT, you go to OP and see glaucoma cases- you do GAT, learn how to read perimetry & OCT, discuss abt diff glaucoma types, learn indications of medical management, indications of trab etc You get lots of hands-on for glaucoma lasers- PI, iridoplasties, SLT etc In my 2 months I did around 100 laser PIs (50 eyes) Course fee= ₹50,000 Accommodation available in campus Work timings from 8am -7pm

Duration 2 years  1 fellow taken every 3 months Stipend 40k in 1st yr, 50k in 2nd yr. OT starts after 3 months, you start with SICS. First 10 SICS happen in a training OT with an SICS trainer and then you are posted in regular OT and given 2 OT turns per week. You have only 2 turns and some times you may miss out on a turn because you'll be posted for camp or asked to go to some dept to help cover their OP when it gets busy. So first 6 months can feel frustrating but it's a phase all fellows go through. But after those 6 months, you start getting called more regularly (still 2 OT turns per week only) and the no of cases given per OT increases gradually based on how well you pick up. They give you phaco training when 2nd yr starts but phaco turns again become haphazard. But that changes in the last 6 months when they start calling you for phaco more regularly and give you more cases per turn. The promised numbers are 1000 SICS (you will do 2000/+ in 2 yrs) and 100 phacos (can cross 100 also)- these are normal NS2 cataracts.   Advanced cases for phaco and ant vitrectomy are not given during the fellowship.. those can be mastered when you join as Medical Officer (MO) for 1 year. Compared to Madurai, your surgical chances as an MO are better in Coimbatore since the OT sisters push you to do more plus your senior mentors also encourage the same thing. Also since you are training PGs and fellows, your fine-tune your skills very well. OP is very hectic, as mentioned before you may be asked to go to help out in other depts. There are also 1-month speciality postings in the 2nd yr of fellowship and during those postings you may even get procedures like intravit injections or laser PIs based on interest you show. Camps 1-2/month, night duties 1/month, Sunday duties once every other month or even later. Work timings 7.30-6 pm Academics- regular classes and IOL forums happen weekly.

2 years long 1 fellow taken per session Stipend 50k Phaco training included 1st yr SICS, 2nd yr Phaco (you get 2 cases/ week) Good OP exposure. Surg hands-on is a bit limited- some 20 PKs (mostly steps) Fellow also gets hands-on for AMGs, pterygiums, C3Rs Lamellar exposure + but no hands-on  Refrac exposure + but no hands-on Camp duties once/ every 2 months Night duties 3-4/ month. All night duties are as 2nd on call with PGs. Sunday duties 1/month Have to attend enucleation calls. Academics- regular classes once a week.

Duration 18 months 2 fellows taken/session Stipend 50k Selection for very 1st batch was by interview but next batch fellows were selected on recommendations given by senior professors 1 fellow is posted for 1 yr in IOL while the other fellow works 6 months in MR after which both switch IOL part of fellowship 1 year duration. OT is 3 days/ week (Tues, Thurs, Sat) and you get 1 case per OT, number increases as speed and skill picks up.  Starts with SICS and then as soon as you have mastered it, you move on to phaco. Phaco training can start after 6 months, again 1 case per OT (if you already know SICS well, your phaco hands-on starts earlier) 1st batch fellows did some 100+ SICS over 6 months and then 60 phacos over next 6 months. On non-OT days, work starts from 8.30, goes till 6.30. In OP, you are with Sai sir (Dr Saikumar) working up and seeing sir's pts.   On OT days you have to be in OT by 7.30 and while OT is over by 3, work gets over only by 6. Sunday post-op rounds to be done by the IOL fellow. MR part of fellowship 6 months duration. You get good amount of lasers (PRP, barrage) and injections (intravitreals, ozurdex implants) Common to both fellows: Sunday calls (1/month) and night calls (3/month as 2nd on call to PGs) are also there. Fellows go for Sunday camps every alternate month. No peripheral postings. Overall, a good fellowship to get trained in phaco while also picking up medical retina skills.

Duration 18 months 2 fellows taken every 6 months Admission fee of 2 lacs taken- not refunded  Stipend 75k (you get whole amount in hand, no TDS cut or other cuts) Accommodation not provided, they may arrange some family flats a little far away from the hospital where either family/ 2-3 fellows share a flat Nethradhama has a trust hospital where fellows do their surgeries, the main hospital services private pts so independent cases are never given there, only steps. Cataract hands-on is there but no phaco training. Start with SICS in the 1st month, more cases given as you get proficient. You also get to operate advanced cases (small pupil, PXF etc) since the phacoref fellows tend to take the good, NS2 well dilating pupils leaving the "bad" cases for glaucoma fellows to operate.. but that bodes well for the glaucoma fellow ultimately. (Btw every specialty dept in Nethradhama takes 2-3 fellows every 6 months but PhacoRef dept has the largest number of fellows- around 24 at any point of time, since they take 4-6 fellows every 6 months) Trabs are started from 4th month onwards, usually combined SICS trabs. You get to learn steps like conj suturing when consultants train you in private hosp OT but when you go to the camp side, there are no glaucoma consultants or seniors there to supervise/ train you. Camp OT has mostly phaco and SICS trainers and they cannot guide you if you plan to do trab. As a result, most glaucoma fellows do mostly cataracts in camp OT. This means all the SICS cases in the camp side plus the steps they got for trab cases in the private side constitute majority of the glaucoma fellow's surgical experience over 18 months. Work environment- not hectic unless you're the only fellow (ie, if other fellows are on camps/ leave/ OT etc) Dept has 2 glaucoma consultants, both are approachable  Work timings 8-6 pm You get to see MIGS, GATT when they are done but no hands-on given except maybe to implant 2-3 i-Stents (depends on your luck). Sunday duties once every 6 weeks, night calls once every 2 weeks (not busy) and camps 1-2 times a week Academics- regular classes every Wed Monetary Penalties are there- Fine of 5 lacs imposed if you quit fellowship midway. Every nucleus drop or IOL drop- fellow charged 10,000/- per case Every camp pt OT cancel- 5,000/- (taken from the fellow who went as camp doctor)