MIND LAB
The psychology of high performance is not a new area. Previously dedicated mostly to the improvement and consideration of elite athletes, these days individuals across many fields work on these skills to be able to perform and improve at the rate and level that they want to.
Think about a professional basketballer that needs to take a free throw after the buzzer to win a game.
There’s only one chance.
Everybody’s watching. How does she stay calm, concentrate, figure out and execute the shot that she needs? As surgeons we relate to that sort of pressure. We understand that success relates to experience and that experience comes from dedicated practice, from mind training and from pre-shot or pre-operating routines.
Many of the same processes utilised in high level sporting competition apply to surgeons. It might be in relation to picking up a new technique or technology, in relation to coaching or teaching a young surgeon, or in relation to managing an unexpected complication. We know how to perform and we know that our performance needs to be constantly improving
In 2019, Eye and Ear broke new ground by incorporating mental or mind training for high performance into the official surgical training program. Through this program we work on high performance and adaptive expertise – a type of expertise that allows more innovative use of knowledge and its application in complex situations. We want to train our next GEN eye surgeons to be not as good as us, but WAY better than us. This type of training also helps the trainers to be continually improving and taking their performance to higher and better levels.
It’s the mind that separates excellent surgeons from good surgeons. Ask anybody with experience and they will give you that same answer.
Previously, it’s taken us our whole careers to figure this out….possibly a bit sooner for those of us lucky enough to have excellent mentors. We’re trying to change that at GENEYE. There’s no reason why we can’t all train and strive for this elite level of performance.
As well as psychologic flexibility we also consider health, wellbeing and other important skills that are not necessarily actual surgical skills. To truly excel in surgery, we need to think about all of these aspects, as well as things like creativity and innovation. We can’t even start to think about this level of performance without the personal resources that result from good health and wellbeing, as well as support from those around us, so we need to focus on those things too.
We look forward to further exploring these concepts at GENEYE 2023. We have a whole team of high performance, clinical and coaching psychologists coming to help us prepare to perform, to work on our game-day routines and …. our personal favourite …. Non sleep deep rest.
VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATORS
At GENEYE we love training in Virtual Reality. We have incorporated EyeSi Surgical into our training program since 2018 and in 2023 were proud to have inspired a program that rolled out across Australia and New Zealand in attempt to improve the training of all Australian and New Zealand Ophthalmologists.
EyeSi has been incorporated in many training programs around the world. Eye and Ear is pleased to be amongst this list of elite Ophthalmic Surgical Training Facilities to offer this advanced level of training. At GENEYE, we believe that VR is a great way to pick up new techniques and technologies, to perform dedicated practice, to prepare for unexpected complications and sometimes to return to surgery after a break. These situations apply to all surgeons from time to time. We strongly believe that VR training is an excellent tool for high performance training and improvement at ALL levels of surgical skill and expertise.
In 2023 we’re excited to also have FIDELIS VR surgical platforms available for use at GENEYE.
The introduction of Fidelis by Alcon in 2022 has been a really important step in progression of VR technology and also in increasing access to surgical simulators around the world. Come to see a virtual operating room, practice the steps of ophthalmic surgery and imagine where this technology could take us in the relatively near future.
The final form of VR at GENEYE 2023 is gaming. Let’s face it, gaming is streaks ahead of us when it comes to VR techniques and technologies and short of having a flight simulator (?GENEYE 2024) this is the best way to spark new ideas about what we could do with our platforms and technologies to help us to reach that next level of possibility.
CONVERSATION LAB
Presbyopia correction at the time of cataract surgery is becoming a hotter and hotter topic as more and more of our patients seek out and expect reading vision post cataract surgery. For surgeons, there are many factors to consider when getting started with presbyopia correction at the start of cataract surgery. Surgeons already offering these options could likely improve their presentation of the options.
Patient conversations might even be the most important part of presbyopia correction. It’s so important for a patient to be well informed so that they can make a smart decision based on their own priorities and circumstances as to what sort of IOL they might wish to receive. There is no one size fits all model, and every option has it’s own pros and cons.
One of the best ways to improve our patient consents and conversations is by watching and learning from peers …. Only we hardly ever do that! We figure out our pitch ourselves, refining it over time and (hopefully) shortening it to an amount of detail that presents the relative pros and cons in an understandable and informative way without being overwhelming.
At GENEYE we have developed a unique way to practice and refine these conversations with tips and improvements from our peers. Pre-vocational trainees and students will learn how to consent for cataract surgery, whilst advanced trainees and consultants will practice and refine their consent for presbyopia correction options. You’ll be surprised how this conversation that we have just about every day can be improved with a few tweaks and a bit of input!
Feel free to check out our podcast episode on this topic ahead of the live event.
BODY LAB
Ophthalmology is notoriously hard on our bodies. Not only are we sitting down a lot but we are in awkward positions, using microscopes as well as often both hands and both feet at the same time. As people involved in the ophthalmic community, we all know colleagues who have suffered back or neck problems as a result of a high volume of work in this area.
Over time, we learn to always be careful of our necks, but often we’re either learning this the hard way or learning from seeing our colleagues in distress.
Another distressing point is that these issues seem to be occurring earlier and earlier in our careers.
There are lots of things that we can do to prevent problems, but those changes often come too late. We need to consider ergonomics and physical health from the very start of our careers, but it’s never too late to make a few changes.
At GENEYE 2023 we have two ergonomics stations. Come to work on your posture at the operating microscope – points that will also translate to the slit lamp, to laser or to just studying or working at a desk. We have a professional ergonomist in attendance to teach you in small groups and focus on your individual questions. We are also excited to showcase some super exciting ergonomics tech from FUJITSU…. it’s early but definitely going to help us in the future.
