The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) has announced that ophthalmologist medical student educators will be presented with the Distinguished Service Award at the 2018 AAO Annual Meeting, held October 27-30 in Chicago.
This award is one of the Academy’s highest honors and recognizes outstanding service to ophthalmology. The AAO noted that the group was selected because of their ongoing work to educate non-ophthalmologists.
Here in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS), many individuals have assisted in developing the novel ophthalmology curriculum that is now used in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s ForWard Curriculum.
Daniel W. Knoch, MD, associate professor, director of medical student education and associate residency director has been heavily involved in the development of this curriculum and will represent DOVS as he becomes chair of the AAO Medical Student Educators Website Committee this July.
Dr. Knoch noted, “This award recognizes the hard work and dedication of medical student educators across the nation. The award also emphasizes the fact that our organization has gained a lot of momentum over the last several years. The acceptance of a recent white paper by the AAO and AUPO outlining the curriculum that every graduating medical student should know will give us the framework to also introduce novel curriculum nationally.”