The widely-regarded ophthalmic registrar teaching course in Australasia, the Dunedin Ophthalmology Clinical Course (DOCC), was once again held in Dunedin over the first two weeks of November.

Now in its 21^st year, the 2018 DOCC course attracted 36 registrars (30 Aussies and six Kiwis) for two weeks of highly practical RACE exam preparation. With 25 ophthalmologists (20 Kiwis, five Aussies) teaching or examining on the course, the DOCC is seamlessly organised by Sally Boult from Events4You and each year seems to go from strength to strength, with a waiting list of registrars wishing to attend.

The DOCC fulfils the role of being an invaluable part of registrar training and remains very exam focused with the lecturers presenting mainly case-based teaching, exam-like scenarios. Each registrar gets to participate in four OSCE exams (two as a candidate and two as an observer). The OSCE’s take a massive amount of organising, but this year this task was well done by Ammar Binsadiq, the senior registrar in Dunedin, and the nursing team of Julie, Sharon, and Kay.

The DOCC provides a tough couple of weeks for registrars. With intense concentration during the daily lectures followed by evening study and exams on a Saturday, it can be exhausting. However, a few registrars actually expressed relief on the course as it enabled them to study without being awoken by young children, wanting their devoted parent’s attention!

As always, there were a few highlights. The course dinner, again kindly sponsored by Designs for Vision, was held at Vault 21 in the heart of the busy Octagon where diners were able to drink Black Quail wine from local ophthalmologists, Rod and Mirani Keillor’s Central Otago vineyard. Another highlight was the first refractive lectures given by Nicholas Toalster from Melbourne. It was only four years ago that Nicholas attended the DOCC as a registrar, which was inspiring for the attendant registrars. Once again, the registrars were also extremely lucky to hear from RANZCO censor-in-chief, Justin Mora.

The DOCC also benefits greatly from the input of RACE chief examiner, Maria Moon from Brisbane, who also represented RANZCO, which kindly hosted a reception at Ombrello’s on the first night of the course. This was a lovely way for the attendees to get to know each other in a less formal setting, while, Con Pestoglou began his day of lecturing with a tribute to DOCC co-founder the late Gordon Sanderson, noting his love of teaching and his dedication to attending registrars to make the DOCC the best course of its kind.

Dr Graham Wilson is a Gisborne-based ophthalmologist and an Otago University and DOCC senior lecturer.