Residency Program in Pediatric Optometry & Vision Therapy/Neuro-Optometry
Center for Vision Development Optometry (Pasadena, CA)

Established: 2012

Positions: 1

Center for Vision Development Optometry
2700 E. Foothill Blvd. Suite 207
Pasadena, CA 91107

Program Faculty
Coordinator:  Derek Tong, O.D., F.A.A.O., F.C.O.V.D., F.N.O.R.A.

Mission Statement
The Pediatric Optometry and Vision Therapy/Neuro-Optometry Residency Program at the Center for Vision Development Optometry provides qualified graduate optometrists with advanced clinical experience in the diagnosis and management of pediatric eye diseases, binocular vision disorders, visual-perceptual dysfunctions, acquired brain injury, and other functional vision deficits.  The learning objectives are achieved through patient care, case studies, and seminars which will facilitate the resident’s development into an expert clinician in the areas of pediatric optometry, binocular vision, vision development, neuro-optometry, and vision enhancement.

A unique component of this program is equipping the resident with the necessary practice management skills to operate a private practice and successfully market its unique services. The resident will also learn to interact and co-manage patients with other optometrists, child development specialists, educators, and rehabilitation professionals.

This residency program is based at the Center for Vision Development Optometry, the private practice of Dr. Derek Tong located in Pasadena, CA.  The practice focuses on providing excellent patient care in Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry.  The residency is a full-time, formal, supervised program consisting of direct patient care, didactic education, teaching experience, and scholarly activities.

Program Description

Program Goals

1. Enhance the resident’s clinical skills in Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry.
2. Enhance the resident’s expertise in the diagnosis and management of vision disorders in Pediatric Optometry, Binocular Vision, Visual-Perceptual and Neuro-Optometry.
3. Expand the resident’s clinical expertise in the evaluation and management of infants and children with visual dysfunctions.
4. Expand the resident’s knowledge of binocular vision disorders, strabismus, and amblyopia.
5. Expand the resident’s knowledge of visual-perceptual dysfunctions.
6. Expand the resident’s knowledge in evaluating and managing patients with Autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities.
7. Expand the resident’s knowledge in managing patients with acquired brain injury.
8. Develop the resident’s communication skills that are required for successful private practice devoted to Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry. 
9. Develop the resident’s skill in presenting lecture to optometrists and professionals within the community.
10. Develop the resident’s understanding of the business aspects in successful management of a practice devoted to Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry.
11. Enhance the resident’s clinical teaching and preceptorship skills.
12. Instill in the resident an appreciation of the importance of scholarly activity.

Objectives

1. The resident will develop a high degree of efficiency and clinical confidence to provide patient care in Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry.
2. The resident will perform the appropriate diagnostic procedures.
3. The resident will determine the correct diagnosis for each patient.
4. The resident will determine the best management for each patient.
5. The resident will gain experience in evaluating and managing children in a primary care setting.
6. The resident will gain experience in evaluating and managing patients with binocular vision disorders, strabismus, and amblyopia.
7. The resident will gain experience in evaluating and managing patients with visual-perceptual dysfunctions.
8. The resident will gain experience in managing patients with Autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities.
9. The resident will gain experience in managing patients with acquired brain injury.
10. The resident will develop expertise in establishing rapport and communicating with the patients and their caregivers. This will include typically-developing children, children with special needs, and patients who have suffered an acquired brain injury.
11. The resident will develop efficient report writing skills using standard medical dictation technique.
12. The resident will develop the ability to interact and communicate with other professionals in a multi-disciplinary setting.
13. The resident will acquire and practice the skills needed to effectively deliver case presentations or research results to fellow optometrists.
14. The resident will acquire and practice skills needed to effectively present a vision topic to parents, educators, and/or other professionals in the community.
15. The resident will become familiar with the practice management aspect of the practice devoted to Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry.
16. The resident will become familiarized with the encounter/billing forms and clinical chart recording requirements for proper billing.
17. The resident will learn how a private practice devoted to Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Neuro-Optometry performs outreach and marketing of its services.
18. The resident will learn the techniques to prepare medical-legal reports and/or depositions.
19. The resident will be provided with clinical teaching and preceptorship experience of optometric interns and/or vision therapists.
20. The resident will be educated in the preparation of a professional manuscript.
21. The resident will be encouraged for life-long continual learning through major Fellowship programs.

Workload and Schedule

Clinical experience may include, but are not limited to, the diagnosis and/or treatment of the following conditions (estimated patient encounters per residency year):

• Total patient encounters (>1000)
• Pediatric primary care examinations, including infants (>70)
• Binocular disorders, strabismus and amblyopia (>500)
• Visual-Perceptual dysfunctions (>200)
• Autistic spectrum disorder or other developmental disabilities (>75)
• Acquired brain injury (>25)

Patient demographics

• Ethnicity: Caucasian 50%, Asian 20%, Hispanic 10%, African American 3%, Mixed race: 17%
• Age: under 18 years old 54%, Adults 46%
• Gender: male 50%, female 50%

Program length: 12 ½ months, August 1 – August 15 of following year.

Work Schedule

• The Center is open from 9 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 6 pm on most weekdays and from 8:30 am to 1 pm on Saturdays.
• The schedule is based on approximately 40.5 hours of work in each week, consisting of four weekdays, one half weekday and Saturday half day.
• The resident will be scheduled to provide patient care on Saturday half-day and will be given time off on a weekday morning such as Wednesday morning.
• Variations in scheduling will be made to meet patient care demands of the clinics, available personnel, and the program goals of the residency.
• The resident may be allowed to participate in after-hours on-call only if deemed competent by the Residency Coordinator.
• Typical time allotment for each weekly period:
  • Patient Care............34.5 hours (85%)
  • Didactic Activity...... 2.5 hours (6%)
  • Meetings………….. 1.5 hours (4%)
  • Scholarly Activity.... 2.0 hours (5%)
  • TOTAL....................40.5 hours (100%)

Scholarly Activities

The resident will write a paper of publishable quality based upon original research, literature review, or a clinical case that is suitable for submission to a refereed professional journal under the guidance and support of the residency faculty.

The resident will present a lecture such as the annual Residents Conference at the Southern California College of Optometry and, when possible, will be encouraged to present posters, papers or lectures in other settings such as at the American Academy of Optometry, COVD, NORA, the American Optometric Association, or other local meetings.

The resident will also present at least one community lecture to parents, educators, or other professionals.

Clinical Teaching Opportunities

The resident will be given the opportunity to supervise optometric interns and/or vision therapists on at least 20 patient encounters.

Didactic Activities

The resident will meet on a weekly basis with the Residency Coordinator for review and discussion of current patient cases.

The resident is strongly encouraged to attend the annual College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) meeting including an Applied Concept Course in Vision Therapy approved by the Residency Supervisor, in addition to the annual Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitative Association (NORA) meeting including a pre-conference Clinical Skills Course approved by the Residency Coordinator. 

The resident is also encouraged to attend the American Academy of Optometry annual meeting, the annual Studt Vision Therapy Practicum at the Southern California College of Optometry, and the annual Wold Behavioral Vision Seminar in San Diego.  Other optional didactic educational opportunities may include the PAVE-Sanet Vision Therapy Course usually held in San Diego, CA and the Vision Therapy Case Presentation workshop by Expansion Consultants, Inc. typically held at the office of Toni Bristol in Montrose, CA.

Compensation and Benefits

The resident will be compensated as an employee of the Center for Vision Development Optometry.

Housing

Housing can be found in the city of Pasadena and surrounding neighborhood. 

Application Process

Applications are processed through the Optometric Residency Match (ORMatch)

• This program uses the Optometric Residency Match (ORMatch).  All applicants must complete and return application forms by the ORMatch application deadline. Supporting documents should be submitted directly to the Residency Coordinator no later than January 31. Applicants must complete the ORMatch application and forward it to the ORMatch as directed in the application. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that all supporting documentation, including the complete transcript of the applicant’s optometric education, is submitted to each entity involved, e.g. ORMatch and the residency site if required.
• Applicant must have earned an O.D. degree or will have earned such a degree by the time of matriculation from an ACOE accredited school/college of optometry.
• Applicant will furnish an official transcript from his/her school/college of optometry.  An applicant should have a cumulative grade point average greater than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in the professional optometric curriculum.
• Applicant must pass all parts of the National Board of Examiners in Optometry examinations required for California licensure and furnish official transcripts when available.  If accepted, the resident must be able to obtain a California optometry license.
• Three letters of recommendation are required.  Two letters must be from full-time faculty members who have been most responsible for the clinical education of the applicant.
• A letter of intent stating reasons for applying to this program is required.
• A personal interview will be required.
• The resident will be selected from among candidates of whom if hired, can present evidence of legal right to live and work in the United States.
• All applicants will be evaluated for selection without regard to sex, race, color, creed, age, national origin, or non-disqualifying physical disabilities.

Selection Procedure

• Potential applicants are required to submit their applications to the optometry program via the Optometry Residency Match (ORMatch). They should also contact the Program Coordinator via email or telephone to express interest in the program and intent to apply. Candidates are highly encouraged to visit the program site in person to tour the facility and to speak with the Program Coordinator and the current resident.
• Candidates with a complete application file (ORMatch application, transcripts, NBEO and TMOD scores, and letters of recommendation) are to contact the Program Coordinator as specified on the ORMatch website. Individual interviews are conducted in person or by telephone. The interview committee consists of:
  • Residency Program Coordinator, Center for Vision Development Optometry
  • Vision Therapists, Center for Vision Development Optometry
• At the interview, candidates will be asked questions that include, but are not limited to, what motivates them to pursue residency training, why they are interested in our specific program, what their career aspirations are, how they will enhance our program, and what is their current level of didactic and practical knowledge in pediatric optometry, vision therapy, and neuro-optometry. 
• Following the interviews, the Program Coordinator tabulates an overall score based on grade point average, NBEO scores, and interview scores. Candidates are scored in each category and then the score is multiplied by a weighting factor for each category. The GPA is weighted as 1.0, NBEO score is weighted as 1.0, relevant clinical/work experience is weighted as 1.0, relevant professional meeting/lecture (e.g. COVD, NORA) is weighted as 1.0, residency and professional goals is weighted as 1.0, references is weighted as 1.0, clinical knowledge is weighted as 1.0, and the interview and interpersonal skills is weighted the highest at 3.0. From this, an overall ranking is devised based on the sum of their weighted score in each category. From this overall ranking, a candidate may move up or down by up to 2 positions to account for other factors such as professionalism, attitude, maturity, and letter of intent.
• The ranking of the candidates is submitted to ORMatch for matching.

• The name of the matched candidate will be provided to the SCCO’s Director of Residency Programs, who will then make a recommendation for appointment of the selected candidate to the Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs.
• The matched candidate is then offered a written contract from SCCO for the residency position.

Requirements for Residency Completion and Awarding of Certificate

• The resident is required to keep a detailed log of all required program aspects, which will be reviewed periodically by the CVDO Residency Coordinator and the SCCO Director of Residency Programs.
• The resident is required to deliver clinical services at a level that is satisfactory to the Residency Coordinator, the Director of Residency Programs, and the Southern California College of Optometry administration. 
• After-hours on-call assignments may be given on an as-needed basis. 
• Participation in local multi-disciplinary meetings may be required on a periodic basis.
• The resident will be required to write a paper based on original research, literature review, or a clinical case suitable for publication in an acceptable peer-reviewed professional journal.
• The resident will be expected to perform in a professional manner in the delivery of patient care services and to observe those proprieties of conduct and courtesies that are consistent with the rules and regulations governing the Southern California College of Optometry.
• The resident will be required to participate in and complete the requirements set forth in the curriculum.  This may include participation and presentation at the Southern California College of Optometry annual residents conference or a similar local continuing education meeting.
• Upon successful completion of the Residency Program, the Residency Coordinator and the Director of Residency Programs will recommend the granting of certification to the Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Southern California College of Optometry.
• Any resident accepted for training can be dismissed, without receiving a certificate of completion, for infractions of the rules and regulations of the Center for Vision Development Optometry and/or Southern California College of Optometry, or for any action that jeopardizes the safety of patients, personnel, or physical facilities.

Program Accreditation

ACOE accreditation is in process for the new residency program.

Points of Contact / Faculty

Residency Coordinator:

Derek Tong, O.D., F.A.A.O., F.C.O.V.D., F.N.O.R.A.
Center for Vision Development Optometry
2700 E. Foothill Blvd. Suite 207
Pasadena, CA 91107
626.578.9685 • Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)• Website: www.tongvision.com

Judy W.H. Tong, O.D., F.A.A.O.
Assistant Dean of Residencies
Southern California College of Optometry
2575 Yorba Linda Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831-1699
714.449.7429 • Fax: 714.992.7811• Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)