This year at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists saw a world’s first for any conference: a slit-lamp grand round. Rather than the conventional presentation of clinical cases via PowerPoint with the occasional clinical image thrown in for good measure, this session, which took place on Wednesday 24 May during Congress, saw six patients come up on the stage and tell their story to the audience before being examined live on stage. Their examination was undertaken with a 3D slit-lamp camera system with the audience wearing 3D glasses to experience the 3D effect.

Having just finished my undergraduate degree in medicine, I am used to attending grand round sessions in the medical education centre in my local hospital – my colleagues and I would spend an afternoon teaching session talking to and examining patients with, for example, heart failure, examining them and hearing their story.

As an aspiring ophthalmologist, I have had the opportunity to attend several local, national and international conferences but I have never heard of a grand round being done in ophthalmology where patients are examined with the slit-lamp.

The session was incredibly captivating and hearing the patients’ stories and their experience of living with sight loss reminded me of the reason why I want to do ophthalmology, which is an incredibly rewarding career where we are privileged to help our patients to see. I honestly believe that a session run in this way will also help clinicians, including myself, to remember the cases and learn more from them – this certainly seemed to be the feeling of the people sitting around me.

Dr Sunil Mamtora, an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at the Bristol Eye Hospital and Clinical Fellow at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, chaired the session and commented to me: ‘Putting patients at the centre of everything we do is so important. By listening to patients and giving them a voice, it allows us to reflect on why we chose to be ophthalmologists.’

The Sight Loss Council who supported and were involved with the event tweeted how the event was a great example of how advanced technology can be used during eye tests and in training.