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UCSF Proctor Foundation

Optometry Student Extern Director: Sarah Lopez, OD

F.I. Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco
490 Illinois Street
San Francisco, CA  94158
(415) 476-1442; Fax: (415) 502-2521

Contact Person: Sarah Lopez, OD; Sarah.Lopez@ucsf.edu

Type of Practice

The Francis. I. Proctor Foundation is an internationally renowned, privately endowed Organized Research Unit at UCSF.   We are dedicated to research and training in infectious and inflammatory ocular disease, and the application of this research to the prevention of blindness worldwide.  The Proctor Foundation is recognized as the preeminent center in world for this discipline.  Activities include fellowship training, faculty research, medical group practice, and international research and training.

The Proctor Foundation offers a clinical externship in optometry to fourth-year students from the University of California, Berkeley – School of Optometry.  The rotation is structured to give student exposure to infectious and inflammatory ocular conditions that require accurate diagnosis and appropriate therapeutic intervention.  The student will participate in direct care under the oversight of the attending faculty one day per week.

Demographics

  • Patients cared for by the Proctor Foundation come from a diverse background of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds from pre-school age to the elderly.

Prerequisites for Student Interns

  • Please see Externships Documentation and Immunization Requirements page for requirements.
  • Student must contact the Externship coordinator by email (sarah.lopez@ucsf.edu) at least 45 days prior to the start of the rotation to allow time for credentialing and immunization requirements.

Educational Objectives

The rotation emphasizes learning through direct patient care, with the following goals and objectives:

  • The rotation emphasizes learning through direct patient care, with the following goals and objectives:
    • Goal I – To be exposed to a large academic and research institution and hospital based setting.
    • Goal II – To be exposed to ophthalmology training including all levels of residency and uveitis/cornea fellowship.
    • Goal III – To be familiar with the diagnostic modalities and appropriate therapeutic modalities needed to care for patients with urgent infectious and inflammatory ocular diseases by performing acute care examinations.
    • Working closely with the faculty, the students will initiate diagnostic workups as well as institute therapies to treat patients with acute ocular problems.
    • Goal IV – To be exposed to a wide variety of uveitis patients including patients with anterior, intermediate and posterior uveitis, systemic auto-immune conditions and viral associated uveitis. The students will become familiar with the appropriate diagnostic techniques and lab work-up necessary for evaluating uveitis.  The students will be exposed to a wide range of therapeutic interventions for treating uveitis.  The students will be exposed to working with different specialties including rheumatology and infectious disease.
    • Goal V – To be exposed to a wide variety of cornea patients including infectious corneal ulcers, inflammatory corneal conditions, dry eye syndrome and neuropathic ocular pain.  The students will have exposure to advanced diagnostic corneal testing such as use of confocal microscopy and anterior segment OCT.  The students will become familiar with microbiology testing including bacterial, fungal, viral and acanthamoeba cultures.  The students will have exposure to gas-permeable contact lens over-refraction.
    • Goal VI: To stimulate the student’s knowledge of eye-care and stimulate the students’ scholarly development.

Student Responsibilities

  • Students have direct patient care responsibilities under faculty supervision one day per week.
  • Complete accurate patient records in electronic medical record and obtain faculty co-signature on all notes.
  • Review pathophysiology and treatment of disorders seen in clinics.
  • Come prepared each day having reviewed the patients scheduled for visits.
  • Students must come to the clinic in professional attire and must wear clinic jackets with identification.

Miscellaneous Information

  • Normal clinic hours are Monday-Friday 8:30am to 5:00pm.
  • Public transportation: BART to Embarcadero station, transfer to the N – Judah line on Muni, get off at 4th St and Irving St, walk up 5th St, the Proctor Foundation will be on the left.
UCSF Proctor Policies