Today on the podcast, I have Drs. Alexandra "Ola" Pietraskiewicz and Amy Durand, two young physicians who are at the cusp of beginning what will hopefully be long and fulfilling careers in neuro-ophthalmology. We’ll hear what motivated them to pursue careers in our field, help break some of the common myths that dissuade many trainees from considering neuro-ophthalmology as a viable career choice, and we’ll hear some sage advice about the mindset that can help overcome apprehension about choosing a career in Neuro-ophthalmology.

Dr. Alexandra "Ola" Pietraskiewicz

Dr. Amy Durand

With overall relatively low exposure to and recruitment of trainees to the field of neuro-ophthalmology, I feel that we as a specialty must be able address the misconceptions about who we are and what we do by telling our own stories. We need to spread the message more widely about how great our specialty is and how much of a positive impact we can have on our patients, colleagues, and communities by the specialized care and expertise we are able to offer to our patients and communities.

This has been the main goal of this podcast, which started with an episode featuring an invited talk to the ophthalmology student interest group at McGovern medical school. This episode is a rebroadcast of that conversation in which I exposed medical students to our field and addressed some of the misconceptions about neuro-ophthalmology to their young impressionable minds.

In the previous episode, I began a conversation with Drs. John Chen, Fiona Costello, and Heather Moss, about the 50th anniversary NANOS meeting. In this episode, we continue our conversation about what’s new and exciting in NO and how to take the momentum from the meeting and use it to grow more practical interest in our specialty.

NANOS 2024

John J. Chen M.D., PH.D

Fiona Costello, M.D, FRCPC

Heather Moss, M.D., PH.D