Help Needed!

Help, Help, Help! We need to hear from the membership as to how to make the web page and articles/events/blogs more interesting. We will continue to have the meetings about once a quarter or so, open ended format, what comes to the meeting gets presented. Remember, this is an open forum to discuss unknowns and difficult diagnosis and treatments as “no physician is an island” to paraphrase it. We need to see the “what the heck is this?” and “what do I do with this?” cases as these will stimulate good discussions. Presentations do not need to be a finished product providing the answer or a disertation on a topic to be presentable. We may have a few of the finished or polished presentations as well from experts in the area but this is for all of our education and problem solving.

Please let me know if you have video or image materials to be uploaded to youtube “NCRC” playlist for all to see. Obviously please remove all patient identifying information from the material first before uploading as we cannot be held accountable for any privacy issues that might arise. Contact me for a link to upload it when the material is “scrubbed clean” and is ready to share (no different from the preparation for a meeting presentation). I have password protected the images of some of the articles to add a layer of protection to the case discussions. It is the same password that is circulated to the membership via email. All the membership has received notifications with my direct email on it or use the contact form if you do not have it.

I remember the absolutely fabulous meetings we had on Friday night at Northwestern U. in Chicago reverently called “Pizza and Beer on the Fundus” get-togethers after clinic. The big names in retina would come to informally discuss problems and dine on Chicago Pizza. Names like Drs Mort Goldberg, Kirk Packo, Lee Jampol, and the crowd from Milwaukee would come down and visit. In the back of the room, two new fellows would be quaking in our boots about being in the same room as this august crowd but at the same time amazed about what would sometimes stump some of the best retina specialists that I have ever known. The lesson learned: no physican is an island and does not know it all or sometimes fails to recognize even the simplest of problems looking for “zebras” when they hear hoof beats. Sometimes the hoof beats are just horses! We must keep our skills in diagnosis and treatments sharp for the good of our patients.

Look forward to hearing from you all,

Sincerely Peter Van Houten, MD