Top 12 Ophthalmologist Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a standout resume as an ophthalmologist means spotlighting clinical judgment, deft surgical hands, and calm, clear communication. The right mix of skills signals you can sharpen outcomes, make smart calls under pressure, and keep patients steady through every step of care.
Ophthalmologist Skills
- Phacoemulsification
- LASIK
- Fundoscopy
- OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography)
- Fluorescein Angiography
- Glaucoma Management
- Cataract Surgery
- Refractive Surgery
- Slit Lamp Examination
- Visual Acuity Testing
- Keratometry
- Biometry
1. Phacoemulsification
Phacoemulsification is a cataract technique that breaks up the crystalline lens with ultrasound, aspirates the fragments, and makes room for an intraocular lens through a small, stable incision.
Why It's Important
Small wounds, faster rehab, fewer induced refractive shifts. Done well, phaco delivers crisp vision with minimal trauma and high patient satisfaction.
How to Improve Phacoemulsification Skills
Sharper phaco comes from planning, machine mastery, and disciplined technique.
Preoperative assessment: Grade nuclear density, note pupil behavior and zonular status, and map corneal astigmatism to pick the safest strategy.
Know your machine: Dial in vacuum, flow, and power. Fluidics stability first; sculpting power second.
Incision craft: Place consistent, self-sealing corneal wounds; respect architecture to limit SIA and keep the chamber steady.
Nucleus disassembly: Master divide-and-conquer, stop-and-chop, and vertical chop; match the method to lens hardness.
Endothelial protection: Use dispersive and cohesive OVDs strategically; keep the tip in the safe zone, minimize chatter and energy.
Capsular management: Create a centered, appropriately sized capsulorhexis for stable IOL overlap and long-term centration.
Post-op review: Track outcomes, complications, and energy metrics; refine settings case by case and practice on simulators when possible.
How to Display Phacoemulsification Skills on Your Resume
2. LASIK
LASIK reshapes the cornea with an excimer laser after creating a flap—now most often with a femtosecond laser—to correct myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism.
Why It's Important
Rapid recovery, precise refractive control, and durable results when patients are selected carefully and the ocular surface is healthy.
How to Improve LASIK Skills
Precision starts long before the laser fires.
Patient selection: Confirm refractive stability, adequate corneal thickness, and normal tomography; rule out ectasia risk and significant dry eye.
Technology and calibration: Use modern femtosecond platforms for uniform flaps and optimized ablation profiles with accurate nomograms.
Planning and counseling: Integrate aberrometry, topography, and angle kappa into planning; set expectations about night vision, dry eye, and enhancement rates.
How to Display LASIK Skills on Your Resume
3. Fundoscopy
Fundoscopy—direct, indirect, or through digital imaging—visualizes the retina, optic nerve head, macula, and posterior pole vasculature to diagnose ocular and systemic disease.
Why It's Important
It’s the front door to retinal pathology, optic neuropathies, and vascular clues you can’t afford to miss.
How to Improve Fundoscopy Skills
Make viewing sharper and interpretation cleaner.
Practice breadth: Examine varied pupils and media; use dilation when safe to widen your view.
Technique mix: Alternate direct, indirect, and slit-lamp biomicroscopy with lenses; know which tool fits which question.
Image capture: Employ widefield and high-resolution fundus cameras when documentation matters or the view is limited.
Pattern recognition: Build a library of normal variants and classic pathologies; debrief with colleagues to calibrate your reads.
Workflow and comfort: Steady illumination, gentle instructions, and clear fixation targets keep patients still and views steady.
Keep learning: Review cases, attend retina sessions, and compare images to clinical findings for constant recalibration.
How to Display Fundoscopy Skills on Your Resume
4. OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography)
OCT provides micrometer-resolution, cross-sectional imaging of the retina, optic nerve, and anterior segment to diagnose and monitor diseases over time.
Why It's Important
It catches subtle edema, thinning, and fluid shifts early, quantifies change, and guides treatment timing with objective data.
How to Improve OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) Skills
Better images, better reads, better decisions.
Hardware matters: Consider swept-source OCT for deeper penetration and faster scans when media aren’t crystal clear.
Acquisition discipline: Standardize scan protocols and fixation; repeat scans to confirm artifacts vs. truth.
Use OCT-A: Layer in OCT angiography to visualize flow deficits without dye—handy in diabetic eye disease and AMD.
Sharper interpretation: Correlate thickness maps with B-scans; distinguish traction from cystoid spaces and true atrophy from shadowing.
Analytics: Leverage progression tools and, where available, validated AI decision support; always sanity-check against the clinical exam.
How to Display OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) Skills on Your Resume
5. Fluorescein Angiography
Fluorescein angiography uses an intravenous dye to highlight retinal and choroidal circulation for dynamic imaging of leakage, ischemia, and neovascularization.
Why It's Important
It clarifies what OCT alone can’t: perfusion maps, microaneurysm behavior, and the timing of leaks that steer therapy.
How to Improve Fluorescein Angiography Skills
Smooth preparation, crisp images, fewer hiccups.
Set expectations: Explain the sequence, sensations, and rare risks; obtain informed consent and screen for dye allergies.
Equipment readiness: Calibrate cameras, verify filters, and ensure reliable IV access before you start.
Technique: Secure IV placement, avoid extravasation, and time early arterial frames precisely.
Image quality: Optimize focus and exposure; adjust for media haze and pupil size; repeat key phases if motion blurs data.
Complementary testing: Pair with OCT/OCT-A and, when indicated, indocyanine green angiography to complete the picture.
How to Display Fluorescein Angiography Skills on Your Resume
6. Glaucoma Management
Glaucoma care spans diagnosis, risk stratification, pressure control, structural and functional monitoring, and timely escalation from drops to laser to surgery.
Why It's Important
Vision lost to glaucoma doesn’t return. The mission is preservation—keeping the optic nerve safe for decades.
How to Improve Glaucoma Management Skills
Build a system; personalize the path.
Early detection: Combine IOP, gonioscopy, OCT RNFL/GCC, optic nerve imaging, and reliable fields to catch change early.
Set a target IOP: Base it on damage, age, and risk; adjust targets when progression sneaks through.
Tailored therapy: Optimize drops, add SLT early when appropriate, and adopt MIGS or filtering surgery when medical therapy isn’t enough.
Monitoring cadence: Standardize follow-up intervals and use progression analysis; watch for adherence barriers and side effects.
Leverage tech: Consider home tonometry, 24-hour IOP insights, and digital reminders to boost adherence.
How to Display Glaucoma Management Skills on Your Resume
7. Cataract Surgery
Cataract surgery removes an opacified lens and replaces it with a clear IOL, restoring light and contrast where haze once lived.
Why It's Important
It’s among medicine’s most impactful procedures—safer mobility, brighter colors, better lives.
How to Improve Cataract Surgery Skills
Precision before, during, and after the case.
Pre-op optimization: Treat ocular surface disease, refine refractions, and choose IOLs based on lifestyle and corneal astigmatism.
Biometry and formulas: Use high-quality optical biometry and modern formulas; confirm keratometry and consider total keratometry when available.
Intraoperative consistency: Use capsulorhexis markers, verified toric alignment, and stable fluidics; consider femtosecond assistance or intraoperative aberrometry when indicated.
Complication readiness: Practice posterior capsule tear management and zonular support strategies; have the right tools within reach.
Post-op care: Standardize drop regimens, watch for CME and IOP spikes, and address residual refractive error promptly.
How to Display Cataract Surgery Skills on Your Resume
8. Refractive Surgery
Refractive surgery—LASIK, PRK, SMILE, and lens-based options—reduces dependence on glasses and contacts by correcting the eye’s focusing system.
Why It's Important
Permanent correction, consistent function, and convenience for the right candidates with healthy corneas and stable prescriptions.
How to Improve Refractive Surgery Skills
Safer screening, smarter planning, smoother healing.
Relentless screening: Use corneal tomography, epithelial mapping when available, and risk calculators to flag ectasia risk.
Personalized planning: Integrate wavefront data, angle kappa, pupil dynamics, and lifestyle needs to choose the right procedure.
Technology upkeep: Maintain calibrated lasers and microkeratomes/femtosecond platforms; keep nomograms current.
Ocular surface first: Treat blepharitis, meibomian gland dysfunction, and dry eye before surgery; recheck metrics afterward.
Expectation setting: Discuss halos, dryness, and enhancement rates openly; define success in the patient’s language.
Quality loops: Track outcomes and refine nomograms by surgeon and device; audit tough cases to learn fast.
How to Display Refractive Surgery Skills on Your Resume
9. Slit Lamp Examination
The slit lamp pairs bright, controllable illumination with a microscope to inspect lids, conjunctiva, cornea, anterior chamber, iris, lens, and, with lenses, the posterior segment.
Why It's Important
It reveals the tiny things that change management—cells and flare, subtle K scarring, microhyphemas, early lens changes.
How to Improve Slit Lamp Examination Skills
Cleaner views, faster focus, better documentation.
Equipment care: Keep optics clean and aligned; consider integrated imaging for consistent photo documentation.
Technique drills: Practice beam angles, widths, and heights; perfect sclerotic scatter and specular reflection.
Add-ons: Use tonometers, 90D/78D lenses, and anterior segment cameras to widen capability.
Patient coaching: Simple cues on fixation and blinking make the view steadier and the exam faster.
Systematic flow: Examine front to back the same way every time to avoid misses.
Peer review: Compare images and notes with colleagues; align descriptors and grading scales.
Record wisely: Capture representative photos and diagrams; they sharpen follow-up comparisons.
How to Display Slit Lamp Examination Skills on Your Resume
10. Visual Acuity Testing
Visual acuity testing measures how clearly a person sees, commonly with Snellen or, preferably for research and precision, logMAR/ETDRS charts.
Why It's Important
It anchors the eye exam, flags refractive error, and tracks treatment response with an accessible metric.
How to Improve Visual Acuity Testing Skills
Reduce noise, standardize steps, and document cleanly.
Standardize conditions: Use calibrated chart distance, proper luminance (around 85 cd/m²), and controlled ambient light.
Use modern charts: Prefer logMAR/ETDRS when possible for tighter reliability; reserve Snellen when needed.
Digital options: Employ calibrated digital systems for randomized optotypes and easy near/intermediate testing.
Staff training: Enforce consistent occlusion, prompting, and endpoint criteria; avoid coaching errors.
Cross-checks: Use pinhole and fogging when results don’t fit the clinical picture.
How to Display Visual Acuity Testing Skills on Your Resume
11. Keratometry
Keratometry measures anterior corneal curvature to diagnose astigmatism, fit contact lenses, and inform refractive and cataract planning.
Why It's Important
Accurate K values underpin IOL power, toric alignment, and safe refractive choices.
How to Improve Keratometry Skills
Chase repeatability and context.
Calibration and maintenance: Keep instruments in spec; verify with test lenses.
Patient positioning: Align fixation, control blinking, and ensure steady tear film for stable readings.
Multiple modalities: Cross-check manual/auto K with corneal topography or tomography; consider total keratometry when available.
Environment control: Consistent lighting and humidity help the tear film behave; repeat if variability appears.
Interpretation in context: Read Ks alongside topography maps and the clinical exam to spot irregular astigmatism.
Ocular surface care: Treat dry eye or blepharitis before final K measurements.
Documentation: Record axis stability over visits; don’t trust a single snapshot when decisions are permanent.
How to Display Keratometry Skills on Your Resume
12. Biometry
Biometry measures axial length, keratometry, anterior chamber depth, and lens parameters to calculate IOL power and guide surgical planning.
Why It's Important
Right numbers, right lens, right outcome. Small errors ripple into big refractive surprises.
How to Improve Biometry Skills
Tighten technique and modernize math.
Use advanced devices: Prefer optical and swept-source systems for precise axial length and total corneal power when available.
Consistent measurements: Repeat until SDs are low; remeasure when media change or results clash with history.
Modern formulas: Apply current-generation calculators (e.g., Barrett, Kane, EVO, Hill-RBF) and choose post-refractive methods when indicated.
Constant optimization: Optimize A-constants and surgeon factors from your own outcomes; verify toric alignment plans with posterior corneal estimates.
Patient factors: Address ocular surface disease pre-op, check fixation, and confirm laterality and data integrity before booking.
How to Display Biometry Skills on Your Resume
