The Ophthalmic Pathology Review Course: A Medical Student’s Perspective

Left to right: Dr. Isabela Vianello, Clara E. Tavares, Dr. Miguel Burnier Jr., Carolina Nishiwaki Dantas and Dr. Rubens Belfort Neto

My name is Carolina and I’m a third year medical student from Brazil. This August I had the opportunity to attend this year’s Ophthalmic Pathology Review Course at McGill University. It was a three day course that reviewed the most important neoplastic and non-neoplastic ocular diseases ranging from the conjunctiva all the way to the optic nerve, as well as updates in the diagnosis and treatment.

Being a third year medical student from Brazil and traveling abroad on your own to visit an institute dedicated only to the cancer research and then meet the names you are familiar with citing in your research, such as M Burnier Jr, Shields C and Shields J is truly an experience one can only dream of. Not only that, but I also had the opportunity to meet other students, residents, pathologists and ophthalmologists from all around the world that I probably never would’ve met if it wasn’t for this experience.

These three days opened my eyes to all the advances science is making towards a better understanding of these diseases in a clinical and pathological standpoint and I’m definitely looking forward to attend next year.

by Carolina Nishiwaki Dantas

Left to right: Dr. Luiza Minussi, Dr. Isabela Vianello, Dr. Milena Almeida, Dr. Rubens Belfort Neto, Dr. Carol Shields, Dr. Jerry Shields, Juliana Portela Passos, Carolina Nishiwaki Dantas, Clara E. Tavares, and Dr. Miguel N. Burnier Jr.