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Ask Carver: Anthony Chung (16MD)

Today we discuss the ease of college towns while transitioning from medical school to residency and the benefits of our home institution the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. If you are considering academic medicine or ophthalmology Dr. Chung shares some great insights from the perspective of resident and now staff.

What initially drew you to ophthalmology? (01:37)

Growing up, my dad was a photographer. So I went to a lot of weddings to help him take photos.  So before med school, I was thinking something visually. Originally it was radiology. Then I did some shadowing and realized that I liked a little bit more patient interaction. So interestingly you know, ophthalmology was kind of in the back of my mind, I did a little bit of research in visual perception in undergrad. 

So it was always kind of there, but I didn't really think about it that carefully until it happened to be the first rotation of my third year. And I absolutely loved it. You know, there was a good mix of clinic along with surgery. Even before med school. I was like I don't think I could do surgery, but I felt like the idea of having that much stress, I didn't think I'd be able to handle it. And honestly, surgery days are one of my favorite days of the week.

Reflecting back-What were some of the highlights of the program in Iowa City? (02:59)

I did all of my training in Iowa City. I left Ames and became a Hawkeye. So clearly I loved it. I'm a little biased. I grew up in a college town, so, you know, the environment was familiar. It was nice not having to transition to a new city and learn new aspects of that.  It was just an easy transition, especially getting married and having eventually having kids. It made it simple to be able to focus on education without having to worry about the other aspects of it, the transition from med school to residency, it's still a tough transition.

You know you still have a backup, but then all of a sudden, after a couple of months between graduation and starting, you have all of these new responsibilities that you didn't realize were there as a med student. And I think it's a lot of things are kind of hidden behind the curtain up until you are actually in it. So just be aware that as you transition from med school or residency, you have all of these additional duties that you may not have realized were there. It's just a matter of prioritizing each of them knowing which ones are urgent and moving on from there. 

I think Iowa is a unique place in a couple of different ways where the hospital is pretty much the only place that you end up going to. So you're not having to travel between locations midday. You know, if you need support from other subspecialties, even within your own department or outside of your department, everyone is right there.

So now that you have transitioned from residency onto faculty, describe a typical day in life after and what you find rewarding (06:57)

So being an academic medicine, there is a lot of time to teach and that's what I look forward to most of my day as staff now. You go through a medical education knowing that you always have backup. So as a med student, you have the residents and to rely on. As a resident, you have the fellows to rely on, but then as staff, you are the be-all end-all. It can be daunting. It is daunting, especially starting out, knowing that you're supervising people underneath you and trying to teach them good habits, but you just rely on your education. Coming from Iowa, I knew that I had a strong foundation. That was very evidence-based. So as long as you're doing things that are evidence-based, that you can find, you know in the literature that what you're doing is correct, then you're doing the right thing.

As far as the most rewarding parts, it's honestly working with residents, that's absolutely why I chose academic medicine. Clinic can be a little bit of a grind, but having residents there bringing new aspects and new ideas keeps things fresh, keeps things interesting. And especially it's been rewarding seeing residents succeed and improve. One of my residents had one of their cataract surgeries featured in a pretty prominent YouTube channel for cataract surgery. So that was exciting to see that

 

Is there anything that you have been contemplating either personally or professionally recently? (09:40)

So professionally two months ago, I was promoted to associate program director. So it's been nice seeing all the things going on in the background. I am always looking for things to improve on so really trying to find new ways to make teaching surgery easier or more tangible has been a strong goal. As far as, you know, professionally as a coach with patients, you know, always trying to find different ways to relate to patients important as well, either finding new ways to explain things that you've done, hundreds to thousands of times, even just finding ways to serve your patients better. Ultimately that's the goal, right? 

I guess a struggle of the transition to staff-hood has been the financial and business side of medicine. You know, as you go through medicine, you're not taught that much about it. Fortunately, I think my residency really emphasizes meeting with billers to learn more about it. So that's been helpful in a sense, but it is so much more complicated than what it is made out to be as a student and a resident.

Looking back at medical school is there any advice you would give related to coursework or activities? (15:17)

I think the courses of Iowa were all very geared towards being a good physician and being a good resident. So obviously I can't really put one emphasis on one course over the other because I think all of them are, it was just a really good experience the way it was set up. It's just very thoughtful. 

As far as events and activities just get involved, the best students that I have worked with are ones that are involved. It just makes conversation so much easier because you can only talk about patients for so long. See, you got to have to start talking about, what else are you interested in? What else are you involved with having interests outside of what you're doing at the moment is great. Just both personally, and for your, for your CV as well. You know, you want things that you're excited about because everything you put on your CV is going to be fair game.