Medical Students
The Division of Ophthalmology at Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) began in 1967 and continues to grow as an academic division. The core of the Division is the resident eye clinic which defines the resident training program in ophthalmology at RIH and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Under the current direction of William G. Tsiaras, M.D. and Kent L. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., the department provides a broad educational experience for its residents and medical students and recognizes that the program's success depends as much on the quality of its residents and medical students as it does on the quality of the faculty.
Ophthalmology is one of 37 specialty profiles represented in the didactic and clinical experiences offered as part of the MD2000 curriculum at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. The ophthalmic educational experience currently offered that directly involves participation of ophthalmology faculty is as follows:
- Two 1-hour required lectures in ophthalmology during the Integrated Medical Sciences course (Bio 365) offered in Semester 2 of Academic Year 1; and
- Two 2-4 week electives (403 and 407).
It is during the two clinical electives that Brown medical students rotate
on the ophthalmology service to broaden their interest, medical knowledge
base, and basic clinical skills in this subspecialty. An expanded knowledge
base and clinical skills in ophthalmology has applications to nearly any
discipline a medical student decides to pursue. For those students contemplating
ophthalmology as a career path, several clinical electives, and other opportunities
to interact with faculty members are strongly encouraged. To date (since 1979), 78 Brown
Medical Students (Match) have successfully matched to ophthalmology residencies across
the country, including the most competitive programs. Each student is therefore
considered our colleague in a joint venture towards ophthalmic excellence.
Brown faculty centered their vision for a medical program on research, while leaders at Rhode Island Hospital and in the community believed deeply that the embrace of academic medicine could also help regional and community hospitals develop high-quality health care services for Rhode Island.