Duration- 18 months. Starts with SICS in 3rd month, you might get around 400 SICS, it also depends on how the candidate performs. Phaco is taught only in last 4 months. Academics not much, mostly on you to learn and be updated. Phaco numbers are not fixed, you get phacos based on your progress with SICS.. also depends on your rapport with the Chief. There are times fellow may not get any phaco and continues with SICS for the whole fellowship. In such cases, they tell the fellow to stay on for one more year after the fellowship in order to advance to phaco training. Fellows on average get 55 phacos in their 18 months fellowship itself. Work is hectic, timings 7 am -7 pm. Fellows have night duties and have 2 working Sundays every month. They share duties with DNB residents. Fellow intake is on need basis, no specific time or number slots.

Duration: 18 months. First 6 months: general posting in the morning half.  Retina dept: Free hands in all lasers, investigations and seeing patients. Once a week online combined class would be there where all-India Sankara fellows and faculties join. Otherwise it's mostly self-learning. But if you are putting efforts from your side, medical retina learning is always possible in Sankara because of the free hands in patients. Retina department consultants are approachable and friendly. Though cataract OT side can get difficult to work with at times, retina department is chill. You will have to go for camps once or twice a month in the first 1 year. Night duty once in a month in the first 6 months. You get cataract (SICS) from 3rd month. The numbers will depend upon your speed and how you pick up. Phaco is given in the last 3 months. 1 per OT turn or so.  Can expect to do around 600 to 1000 SICS and 20 to 50 phacos by the end of your fellowship. There is no single trainer to teach you all the steps systematically. For a person who hasn't had much cataract exposure in PG and wants to do cataract as a consultant along with medical retina, this would be a good stepping stone. Though they might need few more months of doing phaco from some charitable hospital or so to perfect it. But if your cataract hands are already good, there wouldn't be much benefit doing this fellowship because you might not be able to upgrade your phaco skills even after 1.5 years. Duty timings are usually from 9am to 6pm unless you have extra duty which is rare. Work life balance is good. They don't provide accommodation. But will give you temporary stay for few weeks till you find your own. Hospital has a decent canteen which provide vegetarian food.

I did VR from Sankara Coimbatore. We were taken one fellow at a time in my time. The routine is in the morning you come early and see general op and finish all your pts as fast as possible because when Prabhu sir (main VR surgeon) arrives, he'll finish all his private patients and then go straight to OT and start operating.  So if you haven't managed to clear a good chunk of OP by then, good luck, you would miss chances to operate since not only was Prabhu sir good at retinal surgery but also incredibly fast.  He usually sped through retinal surgeries because he was more fond of doing the phaco cases that came after... which is why he was happy to give you steps and cases for retina pts when you went to OT. (Btw sir's phacos were excellent.)  He never hogged retinal surgeries for himself, that way it was great working with him since I got to do many types of retinal cases and got good hands-on. Sir is cool headed so not a hard man to work with. There are no classes or academics and OP is left entirely to you so you have to see all cases and dispose. You can discuss those you have doubts about with Prabhu sir and retain them if needed for Sir to see after OT. Since sir is a fast surgeon, we usually finished our days in good time and got free by 6. Which is unheard of in most VR fellowships since they are always the last of fellows to leave the hospital. Among the Sankaras, their Guntur branch (Andhra Pradesh) is the best when it comes to hands-on and academics. Everything is structured there but it's very competitive to get in. They don't take everyone. Plus their working hours are long. Only Coimbatore where I worked did we finish by 6, nowhere else in any of their other branches could that happen. I heard that Sankara (in general) has increased fellow intake now, taking fellows every 6 months so I'm not sure how it's going now. When I did it, it was just one fellow with Prabhu sir for entire year and that was good in terms of exposure and hands-on you got.

1.5 yrs long. Selection is random, you can apply and they call you on need basis.  Starts with SICS, once you are proficient you will advance to Phaco. Phaco is not delayed to 2nd year unlike in some other places. You'll get minimum of 100 phacos in 1.5 yrs (more if you master SICS sooner). Daily timings 8 - 6pm. Sundays usually off unless camp pts come- fellows will have to workup if DNB PGs not there. Regular classes + You are rotated between diff specialty depts, Cornea exposure is more extensive than other specialties. Stipend 30k, last 6 months 35k. Not too hectic, not toxic.

18 months Phaco training included in the program. Based on your SICS skills, you get to start phaco training early, even as early as 2nd month (this means they give you SICS in the 1st month itself). They take on need basis, selection is by interview. You are trained by whoever is most experienced surgeon at the time- this can be a 3rd yr PG, but if they have passed out then it will be the seniormost fellow training you. Lots and lots of camp cases and consultants operate only on private cases so camp OT falls on the PGs and fellows to finish. You get to operate on all kinds of cataract. Clinical exposure of cornea cases is good, lots of diff ulcers- it can get tiresome after a while. Surgical hands-on: you will be posted in another Chennai centre of the same hospital 2-3 times a week where you will get hands-on for diff refractive procedures like trans-PRK, SMILE, LASIK, Femto LASIK- here Dr Nishant (Cornea head) trains you. You will also be started on keratoplasties in the early months- you start step wise- putting few corneal sutures, then suture the whole cornea, then you will do the trephining and all other steps etc  You get to observe lamellar surgeries, although they are less in number, but Nishant sir is proactive in helping you learn it in wet lab. Work is not very hectic, unless the PGs are less for any reason, work finishes by 7 pm max. Night duties are shared with PGs, Sunday camp duties usually not there for fellows unless the PGs are not available (eg if exam-going) Enucleation calls have to be attended by the Cornea fellow. Workwise it is a bit hectic but there is no toxicity.   Disclosure - this hospital also trains many short term trainees for phaco every month which include foreign candidates, but the fellow's surgical chances are never compromised for this reason. In fact, since it's the senior PG or Fellow who trains the short-termers, the hospital is eager that their long term fellows master cataract at the earliest, so your surgical chances start early.

(Note- this Medical Retina (MR) program is different from their Medical Retina & Uvea program which is 2 yrs) 1 YEAR duration Medical Retina (MR) program 1st month training For 8 months...1 month uvea posting, 1 month emergency posting, 1 month diagnostics posting, rest 5 months MR unit posting with different consultants in which we are in OP with them. Last 3 months known as SR-ship in which one gets their mentor under which they will start getting injections in OT. MR fellows are mostly in OP with consultants, so we get ample amount of almost all variety of cases.. so clinical OP exposure is really very good. Regarding hands on, in 1 month of diagnostic posting we start getting lasers and B-scans. In last 3 months when we become SR, we get 2 or 3 days per week of full day postings in lasers and similarly 2 or 3 days per week of full day postings in B-scan room- In 1 day we get 20-25 lasers if posted in lasers and if posted in B-scan room, we get 40-50  B-scans in 1 day. Injections we get in last 3 months of SR-ship only. It's not hectic.. timings are 8-5pm. Every month you have one emergency posting it's 7 pm (one day) to 7 pm (next day). It's not toxic at all. Cataract surgery is not given in 1 yr MR fellowship, it's given in the MR + Uvea fellowship. Once or twice a month we get night emergency duty or ward duty. Sundays are usually free. Occasionally we get emergency duties.

Review- Uma Eye Clinic offers a pretty good, hands-on fellowship that’s intense but incredibly rewarding if you’re serious about learning. Over 1.5 years (initially one year, now extended), you get to perform around 150 phacos, starting with your first 20–30 cases on a 3D operating microscope, which really helps with confidence and depth perception. There’s some exposure to refractive work too, around 4-5 LASIK cases (both femtosecond and microkeratome), 1-2 SMILE surgeries, and 5-6 C3R cases. You also get to observe FLACS, corneal transplants, VR surgeries, and squint cases as and when they happen. Your day runs from 9 AM to 7 PM, and you alternate between OT and OPD, which has a steady and diverse patient load. There are outreach camps on rotation during the week and one Sunday a month, but otherwise Sundays are off. Just note: there are only 2 holidays in the whole year, so it’s definitely a grind. No night duties! The clinic is very well-equipped with machines like the Nikon Daytona, OCT, iTrace, Sirius, Lipiflow, and Lipiscan, and they even do Presbyond — so you’ll get to learn how to assess and prep those patients. Retinal lasers are also something you can get involved in depending on interest and camp volume. The OT setup is excellent, the phaco machines (Centurion and Whitestar Signature Pro) are top-tier, and overall, the environment is supportive. Everyone is approachable, though of course there’s the usual chatter and politics that come with any busy place. All in all, it’s a packed schedule with great surgical exposure, especially if you go in with clarity on what you want. If you put in the effort, you’ll come out well-trained and quite satisfied. I did around 110 phaco cases during my one-year fellowship. At the time (2024), the rules were a bit different, there wasn’t a fixed number of surgeries promised, so I’m not entirely sure what the current setup is. But based on how things worked then, I’d estimate that 150 cases over 1.5 years averaging 1-2 cases per week. The exact number you get depends a lot on how many fellows are in the program with you. In my batch, there were 3 of us, and usually 2 phaco cases were posted per day on regular OT days. Occasionally, foreign candidates would come in, not all of them come for high-volume training. Some just do 10-15 cases over a few days, so even in those weeks, you’ll likely get one case. But if someone comes for a larger volume (like 40-50 cases), then you might not get posted for a week. That said, it does balance out and picks up again soon after. You can’t expect a case every single day, but overall the hands-on numbers we got were close to what was mentioned during the interview. Another review of the same program from another past fellow who did it when it was a one year program- Hi there! So, my training was quite intense, with a lot of exposure to advanced cataract training. We started with 3D, which is super helpful for understanding depth perception. We also used CTR, pupil expansion devices, multiple phaco machines, and various phaco tips. The refractive workup included various trifocal, toric, post-LASIK workups and options for obtaining uncorrected 6/6 N6 vision. We also received hands-on training for LASIK, smile, and PRK procedures. They also give exposure to abberometry profile. The workup and post-procedure management, including complications treatment, were also covered. I liked my time there, it was a good experience for me.

2 years long. One of the few Cornea programs where you also train in phaco.  However phaco training is delayed till 2nd year- still, can expect average of 100 phacos. Clinical exposure is good- you see every textbook case. Work environment is not toxic but hectic. Surgical training done by senior fellows, but it's mostly self-learning- meaning you operate in numbers and fine-tune your skill along the way. Common cornea procedures/surgeries you get hands-on in: Total KP- 50, Optical PK -3 to 4, Glue BCL & tenonplasty - plenty.  Lamellar keratoplasty - Nil hands-on. You will have peripheral posting x 6 months. Night duties twice a month. Sunday duty once a month. Fellows don't have camp duties since DNBs go to camp. You get exposure to refractive procedures but only observing, no hands on.  Stipend = starts with 40,000. Increased by 10,000 every 6 months. Note- MMJ takes a caution deposit of 1 lakh (which you forfeit if you leave in between or do not complete the fellowship).

One of the good fellowship programs in MM Joshi for hands-on. Lot of hands on.. step wise. Starting from 2nd month of fellowship.. first you make ports, then you get core vitrectomy, eventually endolaser, nucleus drop fragmentation, endophthalmitis. Last few months you get to do RD full cases, PPV, ILM peeling much later on.. all depends on how fast a learner you are. If your tissue handling is good with phaco/ SICS, you will pick up faster. Lot of injections and lasers (you'll be fed up of it in 6-8 months). Top class equipment.. great teaching and teachers definitely... nice working hours - 9am to 8pm without nights unless you end up with endophthalmitis cases... Sundays are usually off. Nowadays lot of focus on research is gaining traction. Overall a great place to learn, great mentors.

Duration: 18 months. First 4 months: General Ophthal posting.  You'll be put in their peripheral centre for a month too. You'll get to start SICS surgery then. 1 OT day per week. No exposure to Oculoplasty for the first 4 months.  Next 14 months you'll be posted in Oculoplasty department.  First two months will be just opd.  Oculoplasty OT starts from third month.     The regular 1 day SICS OT and 1 day oculoplasty OT will be the norm.  If there are less fellows in the dept, you'll get more OT days as you'll be assisting the consultants in OT.  Camps:   You will have to go for camps twice or thrice a month. It'll be on weekends. Guys get more number of camps and longer camps than the ladies (ahem). They go for camps as far away as Kodungallur, Munnar etc in Kerala and Hosur in Karnataka. But some long distance camps like in Ooty and Munnar are really enjoyable and worth it.  Academics:   No formal classes. There are classes for DNBs, none for fellows. You'll have to read on your own.  No exams at the end of your fellowship.  You'll be asked to take classes for the sisters during the fellowship.  You can present cases or studies for conferences. They allow you to attend conferences only if you are presenting something.  Consultants and exposure to Oculoplasty:   The consultants are pretty chill and usually good. An odd toxic consultant maybe there. They give you DCR initially and then the lid and orbit procedures. No exposure to ocular oncology. There's a separate 1 week posting at Aravind Madurai for that at the end of your fellowship.  Duties:   Emergency night duty once in a month or two months. Other fellows and DNBs also take night duties, so it'll be quite rare to get duty often.  Cataract exposure:   SICS only. No phaco.  It starts from 3rd/4th month during your general posting. The numbers will depend upon your speed and how you pick up. One cataract OT per week till the end of your fellowship.  Can expect to do around 100 to 200 SICS by the end of your fellowship. There will be a Consultant to teach you all the steps systematically. Timings:   Opd timings are usually from 7:30am to 6pm. Some days it might go beyond too, depending on patient load.  Two 15 mins break in the morning and afternoon.  A 1 hour lunch break at noon. The short breaks may be cut depending on opd patient load. The head sister of opd decides that for you.  Emergency duty is from 6pm to 8am the next day.  Camp timings are from 1pm on Fridays or Saturdays to Sunday 2pm. Depending on the camp and transport, it'll vary.  Accommodation:  They provide hostel accommodation. It's a 30 year old hostel, cramped and as small as opd cubicles. Most fellows and DNBs survive there.  You do get decent accommodation at nearby apartments. But the rent maybe high.  Water is all hard water. You can't take a head bath with it, unless you like stiff hair. Some fellows complain of hair loss too. You'll have to find some alternatives for that (the water, not the hair).  Food:   Hospital has a pathetic canteen which provides terrible vegetarian food. You can have it if you don't have any other choice. Most people order from outside or take a mess subscription. There are decent mess subscriptions available including Jain food. Area:   The hospital is in the outskirts of Coimbatore city near the airport, so flights are easy to catch. There's also an IMAX movie theatre nearby with a few decent restaurants, so weekend chill out plans do work. There's a few restobars in the more centre of the city like 10-15kms away. My take:   Aravind Coimbatore is better than Madurai for Oculoplasty as you get to do other procedures like lid/orbit procedures than just DCR. Aravind is a hospital with a name in Ophthalmology since the last 30-40 years and the sheer patient load is something that you'll never get anywhere but if you want to be up to date with the absolute latest procedures, Aravind can be lacking in some aspects.

- 1 year fellowship. - Pure phaco fellowship, no SICS. - 1 fellow per session- taken twice a year (Jan, July). - Selection- interview based. - You get minimum 300 phacos. - They start phaco training from 2nd-3rd month. - Free campus accommodation. - Stipend 20,000/ month. - Wet lab available. - Daily OT. - Regular theory classes. - Compulsory 3 year bond after fellowship.

- Started in 2023. - Eligibility- MS/ DNB. - They have fellowships in Glaucoma, Orbit, Paediatric Ophthalmology, Community Ophthalmology, Uvea & Med Retina. - No fellowships in Cornea/ Surgical Retina (VR) as of 2025. - All fellowships are 2 years long. - Selection- Entrance exam followed by interview. - There is an exit exam. - Only 1 seat per specialty per year. - Fellowship is hectic, clinical exposure is good. - All fellows get Phaco training. If you are not good in SICS, then they will make you master that first. * Good academics- structured seminars, journal clubs, case presentations etc - Some programs require you to do research projects.  Glaucoma - Clinical exposure is good. - Also get training in lasers (PI, suturolysis, iridoplasty etc). - Glaucoma fellows get hands-on in SICS trabs, Phaco trabs, cyclodestructive procedures - No hands-on for MIGS/ surgical glaucoma devices  Uvea and Medical Retina - Fellows get trained in lasers, intravitreal injections, ROP screening, also operate on complicated cataracts. - Fellows don't get ROP lasers because they are done by the VR dept. - There are postings in other depts- Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases, Micro, Patho, Surg Retina etc. Paediatric Ophthalmology  - Good clinical exposure. - Fellows get hands-on in paediatric squint, cataract, NLD probing etc. - No hands-on for paediatric oncology but you get to observe management of retinoblastoma cases. Community & Comprehensive Ophthalmology  - Involved with outreach ops and community centres and camps. - Lots of field work and surveys. - Have to do a research based project during the fellowship. - Clinical rotations through general units every week, specialty rotations in 2nd yr. - Fellows get hands-on for SICS and phaco, pterygiums, lasers, intravitreal anti-vegfs. Orbit & Lacrimal Surgery - Hands-on is limited, mostly assisting and observation-based. - You have to do a thesis/ scientific project during this course.