Residency Program: Albuquerque Indian Health Center

Residency Program in Primary Care/Ocular Disease
Albuquerque Indian Health Center (Albuquerque, NM)

Established: 2019

Positions: 1

Albuquerque Indian Health Center

Department of Optometry

801 Vassar Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106

505-248-4003, christopher.cordes@ihs.gov

Program Faculty

Residency Coordinator: Christopher C. Cordes, O.D., F.A.A.O.

505-248-4036, christopher.cordes@ihs.gov

Attending

Dr. Anthony Stout, OD

Mission Statement

The Albuquerque Indian Health Center Residency in Primary Care Optometry and Ocular Disease is a one-year program designed to provide residents with the advanced skills and knowledge necessary to manage complex patients in a multidisciplinary health center setting. The primary focus of the residency is direct patient care with an emphasis on ocular disease. This direct clinical experience is supplemented by didactic and scholarly activities. The opportunity to work with the Native American population provides a unique cultural experience for the resident.

Program Description

The AIHC residency program is designed to educate and train the resident in advanced optometric competencies through an appropriate mix of clinical care, didactic instruction, and scholarly activities.  The curriculum's primary focus is clinical activity maintained through an adequate and diverse number of direct patient encounters, involving the resident in the full spectrum of primary eye/ocular disease in a multidisciplinary, health center-based environment. The curriculum's foundations are the guidelines prepared by Indian Health Service (IHS), AIHC, and SCCO at MBKU.

Program Goals & Objectives

Goal 1: Strengthen the resident's primary care skills.

• Objective 1: Provide the resident with an extensive primary care patient base.
• Objective 1.2: Provide the resident with a variety of diverse, challenging, and complex cases.

Goal 2: Provide the resident with a practical understanding of the patient care components of an Indian Health Service health care system, which may represent other health care systems that the resident will encounter in their future.

• Objective 2.1: The resident will work within and develop an understanding of the interdisciplinary concept of health care.
• Objective 2.2: The resident will develop an understanding of the support services that are available within a medical health care system.

Goal 3: Expand and enhance the resident’s ocular disease, advanced optometric competencies, and systemic health care knowledge base.

• Objective 3.1: The resident will participate in the quarterly resident journal club meetings.
• Objective 3.2: The resident will develop an understanding of other health care disciplines.
• Objective 3.3: The resident will participate in virtual case reports/presentations weekly with the other Indian Health Service Residents.

Goal 4: Provide a forum for the development of the resident’s interest in scholarly activity.

• Objective 4.1: The resident will meet the SCCO at MBKU mandated deadlines for scholarly activity.
• Objective 4.2: The proctor will instruct and advise the resident in the preparation of clinical presentations.
• Objective 4.3: The resident will develop an understanding of and experience an optometric educator's responsibilities and teaching/learning advanced optometric competencies.
• Objective 4.4: The resident will complete three case reports during their residency.  They will be due in an orderly manner 31-January, 30-April, 31-July of each year appropriately. 

Workload and Schedule

Clinical experience includes diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of conditions including the following:

• Emmetropia including common moderate and severe astigmatism 
• Strabismus and binocularity anomalies 
• Glaucoma 
• Iritis 
• Trauma 
• Retinal detachment 
• Keratoconjunctivitis, infectious and other keratoconjunctivitis 
• Diabetic eye disease 
• Cataract 
• Age-Related Macular Degeneration 
• Lid conditions, i.e., inflammations, ptosis, etc. 
• Central nervous system anomalies 

Patient demographics: 45% Pueblo, 45% Navajo, 10% other, randomly including all ages, male and female

Rotation length: 12 months, August 1 – July 31 (dependent on US Government Pay Periods)

Work Schedule;

• The schedule is based on 2-week pay periods of 80 hours consisting of 8 - 9 hour workday, 1- 8 hour workday, and every other Friday off.
• Resident regular time each 2-week period is generally allotted as follows.

Administrative/Meetings/Didactic Activity------------ 9.25 hours------------ 11.6%

Scholarly Activity------------------------------------------------ 4.0 hours-------------- 5%

Clinical Practice------------------------------------------------ 66.75 hours------------ 83.4%

FIRST WEEK Resident Schedule

SECOND WEEK Resident Schedule

Teaching and Lecture Opportunities

The resident makes clinical presentations at venues such as the following:

• Department Staff Meetings
• IHS Grand Rounds
• IHS Journal Clubs
• IHS Eye Care Meetings
• Other national or regional professional meetings as approved by the Coordinator

Scholarly Activities

As required by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education, residents produce an original professional manuscript suitable for publication in a professional journal and presentation under the guidance and support of the Faculty. The resident will prepare a total of three (3) case reports during their residency.

The resident is provided time per week to engage in scholarly pursuits, didactic educational activities, and other residency activities. The resident is required to prepare a manuscript of publishable quality that may consist of original research, literature review, case report, or a combination of each.

The resident will participate in the resident journal club, which meets approximately four times during the program year. The resident must be prepared to discuss at length each of the articles to be presented and will present in detail one journal article his/herself at each meeting.

Formal discussions of patient cases, recent articles, or assigned topics will be conducted on Thursday mornings with other Indian Health Service Optometry Residents,  as the schedule allows. The resident will share in the responsibility of the discussions by presenting a topic and leading a discussion or lecturing on an assigned topic.

Teaching responsibilities serve as a mechanism to reinforce problem-solving skills and to provide the resident with the opportunity to develop teaching skills for potential future use. The resident will share with the staff the opportunity to precept fourth-year optometry externs on a regular basis,  but not at the exclusion of an independent patient schedule.

Compensation and Benefits

Residents are compensated as Federal Civil Service employees at the GS9 Step 1 level (approximately $94,022 yearly) with the following benefits. They thus will be required to meet all conditions of Federal and IHS employment, including background check, licensure, etc. Residents are responsible for the costs of moving household goods and travel to and away from Albuquerque Indian Health Center.

Housing

It will be the responsibility of the resident.  Albuquerque has a sufficient supply of rental housing available.

Application Materials and Procedures: CV, 3 Letters of Recommendation, Interview (in-person strongly preferred), MUST BE A US CITIZEN

Application Process/Eligibility

Applications are processed through the OR Match - National Matching Service https://natmatch.com/ormatch/. The following are required to be eligible for consideration. Applications are due no later than February 1st of the year, during which the residency program is being applied.

• Citizens of the United States of America are given preference. A non-citizen may be eligible if there are no qualified US citizen applicants and they present to the Coordinator the appropriate documents that will allow them to work continuously as a resident for the designated time period in the United States.
• Applicants must have attained the Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) degree from a school or college of optometry accredited by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE). Applicants must furnish to the Coordinator a copy of diploma and official complete transcripts of all optometric education.
• Documentation of successful completion of all National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) sections must be submitted to the Coordinator.
• Letter of intent, including a statement explaining why the applicant is pursuing residency training and what goals they hope to achieve during the program, submitted the Coordinator.
• Applicants must be eligible to obtain a currently active and unrestricted license to practice optometry in a state, territory, commonwealth or the District of Columbia of the United States, which includes the use of therapeutic drugs by the beginning of the residency cycle. Documentation of this must be provided to the Coordinator and a copy of the license when obtained. Residents must meet all requirements necessary for appointment to the Medical Staff and privileging.
• Completion of an interview with the Coordinator is mandatory, preferably in person.

All applicants will be evaluated for selection without regard to sex, race, color, creed, age, national origin, or non-disqualifying physical disabilities, except for applicants who are members of a federally recognized Native American or Alaska Native group who are given preference under the Indian Preference Act.

Selection Procedure

• The Residency Coordinator assembles all required documents and information, and with other appropriate Health center staff, evaluates all completed applications prior to ORMS match day.
• Department staff members rank each year’s applicants on specific factors, such as using a scoring elements matrix. The Coordinator consolidates these scores into a final ranking of applicants used in the ORMS matching process.

Appearance, Attitude & General Demeanor

Clinical Performance History

Communication Skills

GPA & Academic Performance

Professional Memberships & Activities

References (character, dependability, clinical performance & knowledge, etc.)

Residency and Professional Goals

IHS Career Potential

Requirements for Residency Completion and Awarding of Certificate

• Appointment to the Health Center Medical Staff, including possession of an unrestricted license in a state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia of the United States and all other designated requirements of privileging and appointment.
• Completion and submission as designated in Marshall B. Ketchum/SCCO Administrative Guide for Residents of all specified logs, i.e., patient visit with diagnosis, etc., along with designated evaluations of program and faculty.

• Deliver competent patient care services during a minimum of 1,200 clinical visits in a professional manner observing those proprieties of conduct and courtesy consistent with the rules and regulations governing Marshall B. Ketchum/SCCO and the IHS as observed by patients and staff.
• Participate in all IHS Resident Literature Review meetings.
• Submit and present at a meeting of peers a paper based upon original research, literature review, and/or clinical case suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal by the deadline(s) designated in Marshall B. Ketchum/SCCO Administrative Guide for Residents.

Program Accreditation

The Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE - www.theacoe.org - 243 N. Lindbergh Blvd. - St. Louis, MO - 63141) granted the status of “accredited” for the program in 2023. The next currently scheduled site visit will take place in 03/2029.

Health Center and Setting

The information available at https://www.ihs.gov/albuquerque/healthcarefacilities/albuquerque/

The Albuquerque Indian Health Center provides broad health care services to an active user population of some 21,000 patients living mostly within the Albuquerque Metro Area. Departments include:

• Audiology
• Urgent Care
• Environmental Health
• Community Health Nursing
• Medical Imaging (x-ray, ultrasound)
• Medical Laboratory
• Psychiatry, Psychology and Behavioral Health
• Outpatient General Medicine
• Podiatry
• Specialty Clinics (rheumatology, neurology, and nephrology)
• Women’s Health

Other residents and student intern programs are conducted at the health center with students and residents from the University of New Mexico.

The Albuquerque Indian Health Center is located next to the University of New Mexico Hospital Complex. 

Nearby world-class recreational venues include hiking/backpacking, camping, biking, climbing, skiing, snowboarding, spelunking, etc.

The climate is the high desert at an elevation of 5,000 feet. Summers are mild, with highs reaching the mid-90s, and winter temperatures range from below zero to ’50s with snow.

Nearby metropolitan areas include Gallup, Santa Fe, Flagstaff, and Phoenix

Commercial airports serving the area are Gallup, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Phoenix.

Ski resorts including Sandia, Santa Fe, Taos, Purgatory, Telluride, Wolf Creek, and the White Mountains.

National Park Service and other institutional venues nearby include

• Grand Canyon National Park
• Mesa Verde National Park
• El Morro National Monument
• El Malpais National Monument
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Canyon de Chelly National Monument
• Natural Bridges National Monument
• Hubble Trading Post National Monument
• Chaco Canyon National Monument
• Bandelier National Monument
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Cibola National Forest
• Zuni Mountains
• Mount Taylor (popular annual quadrathlon event)
• Sandia Mountains (longest tower to tower tram in the world)
• Humphreys Peak
• Lake Powell
• Pecos Wilderness
• Gila Wilderness

Points of Contact / Faculty

Christopher C. Cordes, O.D., F.A.A.O.

Coordinator, Optometry Residency Program

Department of Optometry, Albuquerque Indian Health Center

801 Vassar Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106

505-248-4036 • Fax: 505-248-7721 •  Email: Christopher.cordes@ihs.gov

Judy W.H. Tong, OD, FAAO
Assistant Dean of Residencies
Southern California College of Optometry at
Marshall B. Ketchum University
2575 Yorba Linda Blvd.
Fullerton, CA 92831-1699
714.449.7429 • Fax: 714.992.7811• Email: jtong@ketchum.edu