Panoptic/other ophthalmoscope for intern year?

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afugazzi

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I'm starting intern year in like 2 weeks. I was thinking of buying a PanOptic and practicing on my patients whenever I have a little extra time. Is it worth it? Or is it better to get a normal ophthalmoscope so I don't get spoiled? I'm pretty terrible at fundoscopic exams right now - I think I've been able to see one good view in med school and that was using a PanOptic.
 
Pan-optic is great but you won't want to be lugging it around intern year when it has no clinical bearing on your AFib with RVR admissions. When you're a neuro resident, you can justify making space in your dork-bag for one because it will be pertinent on a frequent basis, and I heartily recommend Pan-optics for their great views. But I'd probably wait and buy it with residency book money (if they'll let you do that).
 
That makes sense - I forgot those things are pretty heavy. Thanks 🙂
 
I definitely recommend getting a panoptic as early as possible. I had one as a medical student, and by the time I was a PGY2 neurology resident, I could already recognize a lot of pathology (papilledema, macular star, CRAO) fairly reliably. Recognition of pathology is more important than learning to use a primitive device. Give yourself every advantage.

By the way, I still use the same panoptic which I have now owned for 8+ years, so they tend to last a long time if they are high in quality
 
Grab one off eBay for like 300 less than Amazon from some poor med student whose school made him buy it with loan money to be used exactly twice.
 
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