Abstract: At this point in time, the importance of medical humanities education has not been fully understood during the standardized training of residents in China. The study of medical humanities is an important facet of ophthalmology residency that needs to be strengthened. During the standardized training of ophthalmology residents, not only the medical sciences should be strengthened, but also the nature and practice of medical humanities knowledge should be enhanced in multiple aspects. Offering medically-relevant literature, history, philosophy and other courses, simulating real medical activities, being enthusiastic in popular medical science and increasing the contents of the examination in medical humanities would all be areas that would further advance the ophthalmology residency. Along with medical science education, residents will be led and trained on medical humanities as to build good medical humanistic spirit of patient care so that they may better serve patients.
Abstract: Training qualified ophthalmic professional is crucial for any eye care system worldwide. Education of modern western Ophthalmology in China started late but develops rapidly. This review focused on ophthalmic education in China and US, describing details of the programs and analyzing the differences. This summary may provide useful information for practitioners of medical education from both countries and help improve the present training designs.
Abstract: Primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL), as a subset of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), is a rare and fatal ocular malignancy. Most PVRL masquerades as chronic posterior uveitis, which makes the clinical diagnosis challenging. Vitreous cells, subretinal lesions and imaging techniques are essential for clinical diagnosis. Importantly, cytopathology/histopathology identification of malignant cells is the gold standard for the diagnosis of PVRL. In addition, molecular detection of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) or T cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements, immunophenotyping for cell markers, and cytokine analysis of interleukine-10 elevation are often used as adjunct procedures. Current management of PVRL involves local radiation, intravitreal chemotherapy (methotrexate and rituximab), with or without systemic chemotherapy depending on the involvement of non-ocular tissues. In cases with concomitant PCNSL, systemic high-dose methotrexate/rituximab based therapy in conjunction with local therapy, whole brain radiotherapy and/or autologous stem cell transplantation is considered. Although PVRL normally responds well to initial treatment, high rates of relapse and CNS involvement usually lead to poor prognosis and limited survival. A professional team of medical experts in ophthalmologists, ocular pathologists, neuro-oncologists and hemato-oncologists is essential for optimizing patient management.
