Anterior Segment and Contact Lens Fellowship

Program

The James Lewis MD Cornea and Anterior Segment Fellowship offers the opportunity for a graduating optometrist or resident to gain tertiary care experience and expertise in the medical and surgical eye care. There is heavy emphasis on peri-operative care of cornea, cataract, and glaucoma surgeries commonly including LASIK, PRK, Visian ICL, Hydrus microstent, goniotomy, collagen crosslinking, PTK, Ahmed valve, trans-scleral CPC, and complex cataract surgery, among others. We are offer a one-year clinical fellowship that runs parallel to the established Cornea and Specialty Contact Lens residency at PCO-Salus. Our practice has trained more than a dozen graduate optometrists in conjunction with Salus University in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Check out our program brochure!

Residency or Fellowship?

In recent years we have had an abundance of outstanding residency applicants and sufficient clinical material to support more than one position. Our fellowship extends this unique opportunity to one qualified candidate per year. This is an uncommon clinical experience which promotes confidence and technical excellence. The fellowship tips the balance toward more anterior segment disease and perioperative management, whereas the residency offers greater precepting opportunities in specialty contact lenses.

Both residency and fellowship offer complementary experience beyond the entry-level competency of optometric education. In our practice, residents and fellows are expected to perform direct patient care and gain experience under guidance and supervision from James Lewis MD. By the completion of training you should expect to have exceptional knowledge with these clinical cases:

Residents and fellows will actively participate in:

• pre and post-operative management
  • complex cataract
  • premium IOLs
  • EVO ICLs
  • LASIK/PRK
  • MIGS including Hydrus, iStent, Goniotomy, Canaloplasty, and Allopass
  • Ahmed Valves and MicroPulse Laser
  • endothelial transplantation
• dry eye diagnosis and management
• corneal and external disease management
• glaucoma
• second opinions
• clinical research

• Candidacy for LASIK, PRK, and Visian ICL
• Candidacy and treatment for corneal cross linking
• Recommend appropriate intraocular lens (Toric, LAL, and Multifocal)
• Diagnose, manage, and treat microbial keratitis (including culturing and ordering of fortified antibiotics)
• Calculation of intraocular lens powers (including post-refractive and irregular corneas)
• Use of amniotic membranes
• Placement of temporary and permanent punctal plugs
• Recommend and implement IPL and MiBo Thermoflo
• Diagnose and manage aqueous and lipid deficiency dry eye
• Manage first day post-op cataracts, iStent, Hydrus, DSEK, Pterygium with autograft, Canaloplasty, Ahmed valves, Transscleral Cyclophotocoagulation, Visian ICL, PRK, Epi-LASIK, and LASIK
• Assess narrow angles (anterior segment OCT and UBM)
• Handle ocular emergencies including foreign body, trauma, and infectious and inflammatory conditions

Our office is equipped with state of the art diagnostic and therapeutic instrumentation:

• Nidek EC-5000 topology-guided excimer laser
• Lumenis M22 IPL (Intense Pulsed Light)
• Zeiss Clarus non-mydriatic fundus camera
• Nidek RS-3000 anterior and posterior segment OCT
• Zeiss Visante anterior segment OCT
• Oculus 5M Keratograph (dry eye and topography)
• Heidelberg Anterion (topography, tomography, epithelial mapping, biometry)
• Ziemer Z4 FemtoSecond Laser (LASIK)
• Avedro KXL Crosslinking System
• RxSight Light Delivery Device (for Light Adjustable Lenses)
• LipiFlow, LipiView, and Mibo ThermoFlo
• Pascal, iCare, Tonopen, and Goldmann tonometers
• Sonomed/Escalon and Quantel UBMs (ultrasonic biomicroscopes)
• VirtualField Perimetry
• Zeiss IOLMaster700 Total Cornea swept-source biometer
• Nidek AL-Biometer
• Sonomed, Nidek, and Quantel A-Scan
• Zeiss Atlas 9000 topography
• Nidek OPD-3 (and OPD-2) tomography
• Haag-Streit BQ 900 slit lamps with DSLR, HD, and 4K Video

We manage approximately fifty major intraocular surgical cases each week including cataract, premium IOLs, DSEK, Visian ICL, iStent, Hydrus, ABiC, goniotomy, pterygium, Ahmed Valve, and secondary posterior chamber implants. We perform stromal puncture, amniotic membranes, corneal cultures, trans-scleral ciliary body ablation, EDTA chelation, Epi-LASIK, LASIK, PRK and PTK in the office. Fellows function as full optometric physicians. We see patients in Elkins Park office, on the main campus of Salus University, and at The Eye Institute, a large clinical facility in North Philadelphia. Clinical responsibilities include Saturday morning post-ops as well as a 9-5 full schedule during the week. At the conclusion of this program most are offered positions in academia and high profile MD/OD practices.

Questions? Contact us!

How to apply:

Interested applicants should be eligible to work in the United States (citizen or OPT-1 Visa Extension) and have completed a Doctor of Optometry degree. Passage of all three NBEO Boards are required before July 1, 2024, but not necessary before application submission. This position requires the selected candidate to be Pennsylvania License eligible by July 1, 2024.

Select applicants will be invited to interview in person or via video conference throughout January and February 2024. The selection committee will offer the position to a qualified candidate before the OR match deadline.