Letitia Garcia, MD, a resident in ophthalmology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, completed a one-month observership at Kellogg in August 2016.
Her observership was arranged by the Ophthalmology program director, Galton Carvalho Vasconcelos, MD, PhD, who had met Kellogg faculty ophthalmologists Drs. Cesar Briceño, Christine Nelson and Paul Lee in 2015 at the American Academy of Ophthalmology and at an Oculoplastics Symposium coordinated by Kellogg at São Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Garcia is the first resident to come to Kellogg as part of an agreement between Kellogg and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) for a joint research and educational collaboration project in Ophthalmology.
“It has been a great experience,” Dr. Garcia told us. “I saw things I would never see in Brazil. You have access to the newest equipment, and all the team is very well prepared, from the technicians to the attendants. Also, your patients get their own rooms; they have more privacy than patients in my program. Having the chance to discuss cases after clinic and ask questions not in front of the patient is very nice too, I learned to treat the patient more carefully.“
Dr. Garcia will finish her ophthalmology training next year, after which she hopes to receive fellowship training.