| Descriptors |
- Understand and apply knowledge of medicine and surgery relevant to medical retinal practice, to make diagnoses and recommend a management plan for moderate complexity medical retina conditions including vein occlusions, macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease.
- Be aware of the clinical appearances of common heritable dystrophies.
- Be informed by the patient’s unique medical, psychological and social circumstances.
- Understand the tests and imaging techniques that might be helpful in deciding about and guiding treatment in a timely manner.
- Use with accuracy and efficiency instruments available to assess the patient, including ultrasound, OCT scanning.
- Independently interpret investigations including, but not exclusively, Fluorescein and ICG angiography, OCT scans, OCT angiography, autofluorescence and electrophysiology.
- Draw and interpret family trees in relation to establishing likely mode of inheritance.
- Advise patients about patterns of inheritance and recognise when it is appropriate to refer a patient to an ophthalmic genetics specialist and/or for genetic counselling.
- Recognise when it is important to offer a consultation with family members.
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of genetic testing and interpretation of results.
- Understand the association between systemic and ophthalmic genetic disease.
- Implement a detailed management plan to include care from triage to discharge from care.
- Acknowledge and follow relevant guidelines or protocols to follow evidence-based practice.
- Practise in line with the latest evidence, e.g. by keeping up-to-date with latest evidence and best practice with medical retina by attending local / regional / national postgraduate teaching.
- Understand the indications, risks and limitations of laser treatment, intravitreal treatment and therapeutics for inherited eye disease and identify patients for whom these treatments would be appropriate.
- Involve the patient, and where appropriate, their carer, partner or relatives, in the choices about their care and enable them to express their informed consent.
- Share decision-making by providing patients with appropriate and comprehensible information on all treatment/management options including the option of no treatment, prioritising the patient’s wishes and respecting the patient’s beliefs, concerns and expectations.
- Communicate the uncertainty of options in a manner that patients will understand.
- Manage difficult or challenging conversations.
- Develop situational awareness and an understanding of the impact of cultural and social issues.
- Enable patient self-management where possible.
- Understand and apply knowledge of clinical genetics relevant to medical retinal conditions.
- Recognise when a patient has had or is developing a complication or side effect from treatment and be able to manage this in an appropriate and timely manner.
- Maintain an understanding of new developments in relevant technologies.
|