The First of Many

2/21/22

I was able to have my first mentor visit with Dr. Thayer this past week! It was a great opportunity to hear from her about her vision of the mentorship. I explained the logistics of the ISM program and cleared up any questions she had. Additionally, we were able to talk through the process of pediatric cataract surgery to help brainstorm for my final product. Dr. Thayer told me about possible difficulties I could encounter when trying to recreate the material used for a model. Since pediatric eyes are generally softer, I could consider plastic-like saran wrap with play-doh. I also learned from her about how she applies the different pediatric cataract surgery techniques, with curvilinear capsulorhexis being used in children older than three and vitrectorhexis in younger children. We considered which of the two to recreate in my model, with curvilinear capsulorhexis having the advantage of not using technology like the vitrector that would be hard to simulate. However, curvilinear capsulorhexis is not unique to the pediatric specialty of ophthalmology, while vitrectorhexis is. Thus, this is still a decision I have to consider. We also considered the overarching goal of my product, which would affect the need for accuracy, as a model for the use of people in training would need to be much more accurate than a model used to help patients understand the procedure. Overall, this mentor visit was extremely eye-opening for the progression of my final product and I look forward to learning more from Dr. Thayer in the future.