CATARACT ACADEMY PROGRAM
Become the surgeon you want to be
With this 10-week program, you will develop the skills to become a cataract surgeon and will open the doors to a more promising future.
CATARACT ACADEMY
PROGRAM
Become the surgeon you want to be
With this 10-week program, you will develop the skills to become a cataract surgeon and will open the doors to a more promising future.
You have invested a lot of time and effort into your career, years of studying, and working long and complicated hours.
Still, you keep struggling to make ends meet. You are feeling stuck. Like you had no options.
You are unable to offer your patients integral solutions.
You want to become a surgeon to make a real difference in other people’s lives, but there aren’t many options out there that suit your needs.
The courses all the prestigious universities offer are either too long or too expensive.
Besides, you can’t afford to spend two years with no income.
You owe it to yourself to live the life you have always dreamt.
What if you could become a surgeon without having to spend tons of time and money in the process?
With the Cataract Academy Program, you can do just that.
After you finish this program, you will be able to:
Offer your patients integral solutions
Make a real difference in their lives
Earn more money
Open doors to new possibilities
Gain peer recognition
Our students…
I must confess that the course has not been what I expected, it constantly exceeds my expectations and takes me out of my comfort zone, as each module develops topics that one does not expect to see in this type of course, such as the layout of the operating room, assessing and improving the patient’s experience in their surgical process, to things like ergonomics, mental and motor skills and decision-making as a cataract surgeon.
In the Cataract Academy Program, I found a completely new way to learn. It was faster, more efficient, and personalized for what I needed. I strongly recommend this course.
Change your life by changing the lives of others…
Who is teaching this Program?
Who is teaching this Program?
Ivo Ferreira Ríos, MD
🇺🇾🇲🇽
Ivo is one of the founders of Oftalmouniversity and Phacomentors and the mastermind behind the Cataract Academy Program.
He is an Ophthalmologist with an intense focus on cataract surgery training. In the past five years, he has trained hundreds of students, many of whom are now successful surgeons with their own practices, and works in several of the most prestigious hospitals in the world.
Trained in the UNAM University, Mexico in anterior segment surgery with a Masters Degree in Medical Education at Dundee University, Scotland.
He is also Medical Director of the Oftalmo University CDMX Campus, one of the most advanced virtual simulation centers in the world.
Ishtiaque Anwar, MD
🇧🇩
Ophthalmologist with a major focus on cataract surgery. Trained in Iladevi Cataract & Research Center, India. Currently working in Bangladesh Eye Hospital & Institute as faculty and Phaco Development program trainer.
Ben LaHood, MD
🇳🇿
Ophthalmologist with a focus on cataract surgery. Ben completed his fellowship in refractive surgery in Adelaide, Australia with a focus on premium IOLs and currently works as an ophthalmologist in Auckland, New Zealand. He is passionate about research and teaching cataract surgery.
Jonathan Lake, MD
🇧🇷
Ophthalmologist with an intense focus on cataract surgery. Trained as a cataract and cornea surgeon in Santa Casa College of Medical Science, Sao Paulo, Jonathan is now head of the anterior segment department there. Post Doctorate at Federal University in Sao Paulo. Currently working as the CMO of Opty group in Brasilia.
Who is this Program for?
Residents
If you are looking to learn more efficiently, this program will save you time by presenting the information in the most systematic, practical way. You will have all the resources available that will work synergistically alongside your training program.
Ophthalmologists
After taking this program, you will have the confidence to perform cataract surgery and you will become the competent cataract surgeon you have been dreaming of becoming. You will be able to change the way you practice medicine by having a big impact on your patients.
Cataract Surgeons
If you already are a surgeon, this course will teach you about the newest techniques and latest technologies. It’s all about repeatability, complex cases, and better results.
Who is this Program NOT for?
People that don´t want to be challenged
Because this program will do just that, with cutting-edge learning methodologies and state-of-the-art technologies that will constantly exceed your expectations.
People who don´t want to be taken out of their comfort zone
Comfort zones are predictable. Unchallenging. Comforting. Being comfortable is nice, but it won’t take you to new places.
People who don´t want to take action
Yes, you are going to be able to do it from the comfort of your home, but it’s important that you do the work. To make sure you do, your mentor will be there to hold you accountable.
WHAT YOU GET
HOW WE TEACH: Our methodology
In our methodology, we artificially divided the skills you will learn into 3 pillars. We arrived at these 3 pillars after a lot of research and experience training surgeons around the world.
Psychomotor Skills
These are the fine motor skills that a microsurgeon needs to develop. Hand position, working through a small incision, and in a very small space are very complex skills to master.
Cognitive Skills
Decision making, problem solving and planning are one of the most important skills that a competent surgeon needs to master. After you dominate motor skills you need to dominate how to reason in the most efficient way during surgery.
Mental Skills
One of the most developed and perfected areas of training is the Phaco Mind Lab. In this pillar, we train you on how to reach a peak performance state during surgery. How to be focused, relaxed, and confident during every situation in surgery.
…about our methodology:
Program Structure
The role of the online course is to build a robust mental preparation for the surgical training to follow.
The structure of each module is tailored to accomplish that:
There will be 10 separate online modules.
The student will receive each week online assignments which they must complete before the next module is available.
Each online module will have a short exam at the end to ensure content is reasonably understood. Until the exam is passed the next module will not be available.
Each module will be tailored to be short and have a decidedly high cadence for how key learning goals are conveyed.
Online modules will never tell a student what they have to do in cataract surgery for a specific step, but rather why they would do that specific step using defined techniques. This forces every student discovers they possess a more complete understanding of a concept related to phaco surgery.
Carefully selected or created animations, surgeon video talks, and simulation demonstrations will populate each online module to allow for active adult learning vs passive learning.
Topics covered
- Introduction to Phaco principles
- What is to be a surgeon?
- The journey to becoming a cataract surgeon
- Cognitive and Mental training for surgeons
- The cataract surgery Patient
- The Day of surgery
- Cataract surgery preoperative assessment
- The Cataract surgery team and workflows
- The Cataract surgery Operating Room
- Basic Phacodynamics
- The cataract surgeon
- Basic Phacoemulsification Step by step
- Advanced Phacoemulsification Step by step
- Phacoemulsification Complex Cases management
- Phacoemulsification Complication management
- Premium Cataract surgery
- Advanced Phacodynamics
Syllabus
SECTION 1: What is Phaco?
- Surroundings
- Coordination
- Position
- Use of the Microscope
- Knowledge of the Instrument
- Phacodynamics (The pillar of Phaco)
- Definitions
SECTION 2: Prepare to change lives
- No 1 surgery in the world (and will duplicate in 2050)
- Surgery with the most impact on a person’s quality of life
- Most important intervention in medicine to make a change in public health
SECTION 3: Phaco fundamentals
- The most important concepts of Phaco
SECTION 4: The course (On-Line/Simulation/Surgery Course)
- Characteristics of the course
SECTION 1:
- Operating Room
- Spaces optimization for workflow & safety.
- Phaco Machine
- Technology is the king so know the machine & how the Centurion phaco platform can aid you in having optimal surgical outcomes
- Microscope
- “You can’t do what you can’t see”
- Alcon Ngenuity as a progressive new mode of visualization
- Instruments
- Sterilization methods.
- Essentials: ”Every carpenter has a hammer & a saw in his toolbox”
- Well trained Team
- Anesthesia
- Nurse
- Consumables & their role in optimizing surgical outcomes
- Viscoelastic
- IOL
- Phaco system Cassette
SECTION 2: Phaco as “your everything.”
- “The blessed”. To be a skilled compassionate phaco surgeon is to unlock your true calling
- The key role of Phaco in your practice (The 80% rule)
- Phaco Economics & the correlation of practice prosperity to active surgical practice & commitment to surgical excellence
SECTION 1: Andragogy: Adult Learning
- Competency-Based
- Objective Driven
- Consistent Evaluation
SECTION 2: Cognitive, Integrative, and Autonomous Stage 1.
- Critical Thinking in Phaco
- Whole-Part-Whole Learning Model
SECTION 3: 80% of Phaco it’s outside the OR
- Hyperfocus, Exercise to concentrate on Surgery Coordination
- Coordination exercises in phaco
- Foot-Hand- Ear-Eye
- Fine movements with your hands
- Phacodynamics
- Concentration capacity (Mindfulness) & Neurolinguistics Programing
- Critical thinking and Problem Solving
- Complication Mindset
- Communication in the operating room
- Patient Status (Diseases, Conditions)
- Risk Evaluation
- IOL Calculation
- IOL Selection
- Costs (Ideal vs. reality)
- “How to sell” (Premium & toric lenses)
- Assistants
- Workflows and Leadership
- Nurses
- Technicians
- Anesthesiologist
- Phaco Fundamentals
- “Equilibrium”. What goes out must equal what goes in!
- Pumps.
- Why own a Ferrari if you cannot drive a 5-speed car
- The pedal.
- Flowability/holdability. Know this & you are the master of your domain
- Ultrasound. It’s more a jackhammer than a shovel.
7. Where are we going?
SECTION 1: Anesthesia
- Types
- Advantages in different cataract surgery scenarios
- When topical is the wrong choice
SECTION 2: Visualization
- Microscopes fundamentals for microsurgery
- Microscope positioning relative to
- Becoming panfocal to visualize from cornea to PC
- Advantages of 3D imaging for cataract surgery
SECTION 3: Position of the patient and surgeon ergonomics
- Principles of positioning
- Protect yourself
INCISION
- Types
- Technique
- Induce Astigmatism importance
PARACENTESIS
- Types
- Technique
- Position
VISCOELASTIC INTRODUCTION
- Types
- Technique
CAPSULORHEXIS
- Rhexis Fundamentals
- Rhexis Deconstructed
- Rhexis in 3 dimensions
- Reassemble the Rhexis
HYDRODISSECTION NUCLEO FRACTIS
- Different techniques
- Importance of knowing different techniques
IRRIGATION ASPIRATION
- Anatomy
- Cortex behavior
- Movements (hands and IA tip)
- Parameters
IOL INSERTION
- Wound interaction in which we need to be aware that the cartridge does not separate from the wound
- The correct movement of the IOL in the AC and to direct it to the capsular bag
VISCOELASTIC ASPIRATION
- Remove the viscoelastic completely from the AC
- Remove viscoelastic from behind the IOL
- Parameters
INCISION MANAGEMENT
- Sutureless incision management
- How to make a good suture for our incision
INTRAOPERATIVE MEDICATION IN PHACO
- Inammation control medication
- Antibiotics
- The power of simulation.
- How to learn faster with simulation.
- The correct mindset to have during the simulation course.
- What to expect in the simulation phase.
Program Structure
MULTIPLE VIDEOS
Exclusive multi-camera views. Short videos to optimize time and attention span.
CASE BASED LEARNING
Interactive cases and problem-solving. Situations to exercise critical thinking.
PRESENTATIONS & ANIMATIONS
Tailor-made Keynote and video presentations and animations to help in concept transfer.
QUIZZES
Embedded quizzes within each module to assess the progress. Scores and Reports automatically compiled by the education platform.
Students will have to work together in some stages and know each other with feedback.
Students will have active participation in each stage of the course.
When you finish the online mentorship and pass the evaluation, you will receive your first OU certificate. After the first Program, you will be able to apply for the second part of our Program in the OU Campus which is a 7 to 14 full-day training program.
By the end of this program, students will be able to:
Address preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative management issues in cataract surgery.
Perform the technical skills of cataract surgery.
Recognize and understand complications of cataract surgery.
Understand advances in phacoemulsification technology and appropriate use of instrumentation, and lenses.
Why you should sign up for this Program now:
Time flexibility, personalized attention, and grant access to one of the best simulation campuses in the world.
Our OU Campus Mexico City
Here you will learn with a Mentor by performing virtual simulations in the VRMagic Eyesi Simulator and with real phaco machines, microscopes, consumables, IOLs, and Bioniko Artificial eyes.
Get immediate access to the most advanced tools today’s market has to offer to become the best surgeon you can, from the comfort of your home.
If you really want to turn your life around and take a big step forward with your career, as well as having a greater impact on other people’s lives, this is the program for you.
If you want practical, experiential learning, in a realistic environment and with real cases, this is the program for you.
Join us to raise your surgical experience to the next level.