Descriptions of On-Campus Residency

Primary Care

Chief Mentor: Christina S. Wilmer, OD
cwilmer@berkeley.edu

The specialty program in Primary Care is designed to provide a broad clinical experience in an advanced curriculum. The patient population is diverse and a large variety of eye and vision disorders are encountered. The resident will participate in patient care in several different clinical settings, including multidisciplinary environments and ambulatory care centers. At least two days a week are spent in the Tang Eye Center, which provides extensive exposure to anterior segment disease and urgent care management often in consultation or referral from the primary care medical staff.

The track in primary care is designed to advance the resident's clinical knowledge, diagnostic skills, and case management. During the residency year, primary care residents will be able to tailor their clinical experience to reflect a more focused curriculum or to maintain a broad overview of optometric subspecialties. These can include ocular disease, urgent care management, cornea and contact lenses, refractive surgery, low vision, pediatrics, geriatrics, binocular vision, and clinical teaching. The primary care resident will have on-call duties, with the guidance of a faculty mentor, to round out the clinical experience.

All UC Berkeley optometry residencies include a secondary area of study that comprises 20% of the residency year. The primary care track is paired with a secondary in cornea and contact lenses. This provides the resident with additional opportunity for specialty contact lens fitting and design under the guidance of an expert contact lens mentor.
[return to Introduction to Residency Program.]

Ocular Disease

Chief Mentor: Carl Jacobsen, OD
chj@berkeley.edu

The University of California School of Optometry offers a residency track in ocular disease diagnosis and management with an emphasis on clinical patient care. Clinical patient care is offered primarily through the UCBSO Ophthalmology Clinic with possible short rotations through affiliated off-campus clinics. Staff ophthalmologists specializing in general ophthalmology, oculoplastic surgery, retina, and glaucoma as well as residency-trained optometrists supervise the resident. The Ophthalmology Clinic is a referral clinic for area optometrists as well as other UCBSO clinics and, as such, serves a diverse patient population. For the interested resident, short rotations through other UCBSO specialty clinics in electrodiagnostics, contact lens related eye disease, low vision, or other clinics can be arranged. Supplementing direct patient care, the resident will attend and participate in grand rounds, help supervise fourth-year optometry students, and will be partially responsible for after-hours emergency consultations. For the interested resident, many research opportunities related to ocular disease are available through the School's outstanding faculty research program. The goal of this residency is to develop a skilled clinician with advanced ability to detect, diagnose, and treat eye disease.
[Return to Introduction to Residency Program.]

Contact Lenses

Chief Mentor: Dennis Burger, OD
dburger@berkeley.edu

The Contact Lens Specialty is designed to expand the resident's knowledge and clinical expertise in the areas of contact lenses and corneal physiology. The program offers experience in fitting contact lenses for a general population of patients and for those who need special designs, such as bitoric, keratoconic, multifocal, post-surgical, and aphakic. Residents will also gain contact lens teaching experience in both clinic and didactic courses and have the opportunity to participate in contact lens research projects.
[Return to Introduction to Residency Program.]

 Also see the article in the Spring 2006 issues of Berkeley Optometry Focus: "A Look into the Life of a Contact Lens Resident at Berkeley Optometry."

Low Vision

Chief Mentor: Robert Greer, OD
rbgreer@berkeley.edu

The Optometric Residency Program in low vision provides the resident with a broad experience in low vision care and rehabilitation for those with decreased vision. The Low Vision Clinic has a diverse clinical population and provides service for substantial numbers of visually handicapped (often multi-handicapped) children, as well as, adults in college, at work, or in rehabilitation programs. The majority of the Clinic's patient population is elderly. The Low Vision Resident gains experience in prescribing hand-held and spectacle-mounted optical systems for distance and near activities and devices to compensate for peripheral vision loss. The Resident also learns about electronic magnification systems and computer hardware and software solutions. By working with our rehabilitation specialist, the Resident will acquire knowledge about rehabilitation services, such as support group programs, educational and mobility evaluations, contrast enhancement techniques and lighting options. Each week the Low Vision Residents rotates through clinics at the California School for the Blind and the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In addition, the Low Vision Resident will spend one day a week in an ocular disease clinic.
[Return to Introduction to Residency Program.]

Binocular Vision

Chief Mentor: Pia Hoenig, OD, MA
mphoenig@berkeley.edu

The specialty program in Binocular Vision will provide extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of sensory-motor disorders of binocular vision, including strabismus, amblyopia, suppression, anomalous correspondence, and general binocular dysfunction resulting from paresis, tonic disorders, and accommodative-vergence disorders. The program offers pre- and post-surgical evaluation and treatment, as well as experience in eye movement assessment. Residents will be introduced to learning problems and their optometric evaluation.
[Return to Introduction to Residency Program.]

Pediatrics

Chief Mentor: Deborah Orel-Bixler, OD, PhD
dob@berkeley.edu

The specialty program in Pediatric Vision is broad-based, covering all sensory-motor aspects of visual development in infants and children. The primary goal of the pediatric residency program is to provide the resident with proficiency in optometric care and management of the pediatric population. This program includes training in vision screening, visual evaluation, monocular and binocular sensory processes, optics, binocular vision, cognition, and motor development. Residents will gain extensive experience in the diagnosis and management of anomalies of binocular vision and assessment of vision function in the normal and multi-handicapped pediatric population, using electrodiagnostic techniques (visual evoked potentials) and behavioral analysis of visual functions such as preferential looking techniques.

See the Pediatric Residency Picture Gallery.

Optometric Residency Program
Inez Bailey, Graduate Affairs Officer
inezb@berkeley.edu
524 Minor Hall, School of Optometry
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2020