Dr Tommy Chung Yan CHAN

Hong Kong Eye Hospital

Hong Kong SAR

I was taught on the preoperative assessment and surgical pearls of these operations. This can certainly help improve my future operations and patients and care for my patients.

I was so honored to receive the Asia Cornea Society – Santen Asia Educational Observership Grant to support my visit to Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in winter last year (30 November to 11 December 2015). During the 2-week period, I attended the cornea clinic and ward rounds to learn from corneal specialists in the department. I am particularly interested in anterior segment imaging and its roles in managing corneal diseases. This is a good opportunity for me as the corneal service is fully supported by high-end imaging technology including corneal tomography, topography and wavefront analysis.

The department is word-famous for stem cell research and ocular surface reconstruction. I also take this opportunity to exchange our knowledge on managing difficult ocular surface diseases such as ocular cicatrizing pemphigoid and Steven-Johnson syndrome. We also discussed future service support in ocular surface reconstruction technique – cultivated oral mucosal epithelial cell transplantation (COMET) for patients with limbal stem cell deficiency.

During my observership, I observed several corneal operations including keratoplasty and laser refractive surgery. I was taught on the preoperative assessment and surgical pearls of these operations. This can certainly help improve my future operations and patients and care for my patients.

I also attended the research meeting held by Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine and Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong and gave a presentation on my current research work on keratoconus and ocular surface diseases. Future collaborations in research were sought and started since this meeting. More important, we built good friendship between each other!

I would like to thank Professor K Nishida and Professor N. Maeda for their patience and guidance during my visit, and Asia Cornea Society for the generous support. I strongly recommend other cornea fellows to apply for the Asia Cornea Society – Santen Asia Educational Observership Grant.