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How to consent patients

I attended a morning seminar at the recent College Congress in Liverpool about how to properly and legally consent a patient for a procedure. There has been a lot of interest in this of late following the Montgomery ruling, in...

The pyramid

The first time I attended the Congress of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists was now more than 10 years ago, though I still remember the excitement of wandering down the aisles in the exhibition hall marvelling at the stands and...

The only thing to fear is fear itself

There is a song by the Amateur Transplants called ‘Finals Fantasy’ which describes in humorous detail how stressful clinical exams can be. Having not done any viva or objectively structured clinical examination (OSCE) style exams for many years indeed I...

Melanocytoma of the optic disc

Melanocytoma is a heavily pigmented lesion, composed of melanocytes and is a variant of melanocytic naevus. It classically occurs at the optic disc and is usually benign, static and asymptomatic. However, it can occasionally grow and invade the retina or...

An unusual presentation of sarcoidosis

*Equally contributing co-first authors. Case report A 45-year-old man presented to his local optometrist with a three-week history of severe intermittent left eye pain with associated blurred vision and tenderness around his left temple. Two days prior, he developed weakness...

Ophthalmology survey results August/September 2019

I am delighted to see another great response to the practice variance survey. I am extremely grateful to all of you who took part and would encourage those of you who didn’t to try this survey. It literally takes mere...

The results of the last survey Apr 2020

As ever, I would like to thank all those who participated in the last edition’s survey. A lot of data was generated and I do not intend to go through each individual finding. What is staggering again is the degree...

The results of the last survey Apr21

There was a really fascinating response to the last edition’s practice variance survey. Strictly speaking, I cheated and this was not really about practice variation, but more about your impressions about what represents negligent practice. For the first time ever,...

The writer: publishing my first book as a trainee

Medicine is very hierarchical. Indeed, Hippocrates himself laid the foundation of the apprenticeship that is medical training and while it is the noble duty of the boss to pass on information and ask for tasks to be undertaken as a...

The medical student syndrome

It is often said that “a little learning is a dangerous thing,” but being super savvy can’t put us at the brink of harm, can it? Each year as thousands of students commence their medical degrees, they begin a journey...