U-M Learners Produce Online Newsletter

Ophthalmology literature made accessible

In late 2019, David Portney and Dena Ballouz, both U-M Medical School Class of 2021, hit a wall familiar to anyone who has walked the path from medical school to ophthalmology specialization.

“It’s a tough field to learn about, let alone master,” explains Portney, now an intern gearing up for his first year of residency at Kellogg. “There are so many subspecialties and so much research, and the med school curriculum barely scratches the surface.”

“David and I were both involved with Kellogg faculty research, so we were very motivated to learn more,” says Ballouz, who is also an intern who will be starting residency training at Kellogg in 2022. “But with so much high- impact research coming out all the time, “and only a beginner’s knowledge base, it’s a steep learning curve.”

With their mutual enthusiasm, Portney and Ballouz hatched an idea: Why not create an email newsletter of easy-to-digest summaries of current research and topics in ophthalmology, prepared especially for medical students?

The first issue of The Lens was published online in January 2020. Initially, the plan was to provide ‘quick hits you want to know’ to interested U-M medical students.

One early subscriber was fellow U-M classmate Ajay Kolli. Kolli, who detoured to Harvard to add an M.P.H. to his M.D., is scheduled to graduate medical school in 2022. “I found it so engaging and useful, I reached out to David and Dena to get involved,” he says.

“Timing is everything,” says Ballouz. “The launch coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many people were looking for easy-to-use remote learning resources.”

With Kolli on board, the team reached out to connections at other schools for both readers and volunteers to help produce the newsletter. Today, more than 30 medical students from 25 schools in the U.S. and Canada share the content development duties.

With a team of volunteers, publication expanded from bi-weekly to weekly. An editorial “cadence” was established to manage the workflow, and a training protocol was developed to help team members outline and write a summary from a published manuscript. The Lens recently added a podcast featuring interviews with attendings and fellows. And the three co-founders transitioned from writing to editing, with Kolli serving as editor-in-chief.

In true Kellogg evidence-based style, the team even fielded and published (in the Journal of Surgical Education) research on The Lens. “Our study —the first we know of to assess the efficacy of a newsletter as an educational tool—demonstrated that The Lens improved readers’ knowledge, and that the longer they subscribed, the more they retained,” Kolli says.

“People have asked what qualifies a bunch of medical students with little background in the field to curate and summarize current literature in ophthalmology,” says Portney. “I say ‘Why not?’ We’re trained to absorb concepts quickly and think critically. Plus, our faculty are easily accessible if we have any questions or concerns.”

“We hope we’re making ophthalmology more accessible,” adds Ballouz. “What drew us to the field—all the innovation and technology—is also what can make it intimidating.”

No longer just for medical students, The Lens is expanding its audience to include residents, faculty and practicing ophthalmologists.

Visit lensophthalmology.com to subscribe