UK’s ophthalmology residency program is competitive, receiving more than 500 applications per year in recent years. Madison is a crucial part of helping organize those applications to find the right candidates for the four open positions each year.
“It’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes,” she says.
Her department holds interviews in November and December to decide which residents will join the team. This year, along with holding traditionally formatted interviews with faculty, the ophthalmology staff tried out a new method to make things a little more fun.
GatherTown, which Madison calls “an adult version of Club Penguin,” is a virtual platform that allows the applicant to customize an avatar. Through the platform, prospective residents mingled with current residents online in a way that Madison says “balances seriousness with playfulness.”
Madison and her team were willing to try something new, and her residents used their technology skills to customize the program to her department’s interview needs.
Along with our new ophthalmology residents, Madison is tasked with ensuring current residents stay on track and feel supported during their training.
Clinical competency meetings are important tracking residents' progress through the program. Madison helps coordinate these meetings for UK ophthalmology residents. She says during this time, faculty come together with residents to track where they are and discuss milestones in their training.
Madison also holds more informal meetings of her own with residents, normally in the form of a pop-in. Her office is a safe space for residents to talk about their consult service, their work in the clinic, or just daily life happenings.
Madison is a constant source of support for her residents throughout the year. She keeps a candy bowl filled at her desk. “I call it my emotional support candy,” she says. “Now I have essentially trained the entire department to come to me for it.”
What started as a cute way to let the team know they’re appreciated turned into a way for Madison to bridge strong connections with residents.
“Maddie is the perfect example of what a program coordinator should be: dependable, organized, caring, and an extremely hard worker. She has been a lifesaver multiple times already during my training, whether it is anticipating an issue with a reimbursement request, smoothing out scheduling mishaps, or fighting on our behalf with different internal and external departments involved in the resident experience. We are extremely lucky to have her and without her, our program would crumble!”
Cody Blanchard, MD
Ophthalmology Resident
Madison also helps coordinate and schedule grand rounds, the ophthalmology department’s regular opportunity to bring residents, faculty, staff, and students together for communal medical education and professional development.
The team meets on Fridays in the Shriner’s Hospital conference room, with topics such as oculoplastics, glaucoma, and other ophthalmology subspecialties; the history of medicine and evolution of the eye; Appalachian care; and life after residency.
“We have a pretty good turnout regardless of topic,” says Madison, who joins each grand rounds session.
Each year in February, Madison has the chance to show ophthalmology residents her appreciation for them through the annual Thank a Resident Day commemoration, observed nationally by the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
This year, Madison celebrated her residents with a catered meal. Many were working at the adjacent Lexington Veterans Affairs Hospital on the actual Thank a Resident Day, so to make sure everyone could join, Madison moved the celebrations to the following week.
While offering well-rounded ophthalmology residency training, UK’s ophthalmology department also engages with the greater Lexington area and surrounding communities.
Madison helps support many of the department’s off-campus events, including UK GO eye clinics that offer free eye care to underserved communities in Lexington, Paris, and Hazard. The clinics provide full eye exams, ancillary exams when possible, and free high-quality eyeglasses with help from the department’s optical shop. The clinic also offers follow-up appointments if warranted.
One of the big community engagement events for the ophthalmology department is the annual Tri for Sight triathlon. All of the proceeds go toward philanthropic causes related to vision and ophthalmology through the UK Eye Research Fund.
Madison calls herself the “certified woo girl” of the event, volunteering yearly to cheer on the participants. “It's something that our department is really proud of,” she says. “We've been doing it for several years and a lot of our faculty and residents actually participate.”
Her big event, however, is graduation.
Graduation planning in the spring is very busy. It involves everything from the venue walk-through, ordering food, planning activities, paperwork, printing certificates, and more.
All builds up to a June celebration of the graduating residents who will leave UK to embark on their next journey. Ophthalmology graduation includes a morning research day, where residents present their research for the year. Then a party at Kroger Field in Lexington follows.
Graduation is also when Madison gives graduating residents a proper send-off – and she has to say goodbye a group of colleagues and friends.
“Saying goodbye to our graduating residents is always hard,” Madison says. “Even though I have only been part of this program for a short while, time has flown by. As graduation day begins, I find myself extremely busy and running around all day. However, come the evening event, I'm able to take a breath and watch as everyone in our program comes together to honor the dedication and achievements of our graduates.”
She says the night is filled with lots of laughs, hugs, and a few teary eyes.
“As I say goodbye to our graduates, I remind them that I'm still here for them, even after they leave UK,” she says. “I usually try to keep up with them on social media as well to show support from afar.”
Before she knows it, it’s off to onboard another year of residents. In Fall 2024, Madison will start the year having completed three full years of being residency program coordinator – or as she puts it, “ready to walk.”
When asked about her role at the UK College of Medicine, Madison describes herself not as a main character, but “all of the side characters.”
Yet, as Madison demonstrated in her year, she is far from a side character. She is an integral part of everything that provides UK ophthalmology residents with a proper, fulfilling training experience. According to her residents, she is the main character.
“I would say that Maddie is the backbone of our whole program. If I need help with anything, I go to Maddie first because I trust her the most. She is very dependable and kind. I know that she is watching out for me every day. I love working with her. I sometimes have a bad day and go to her office to vent. She is always ready to listen… she is truly irreplaceable, both in her job and as a friend.”
Clay Huffman, MD,
Ophthalmology Resident
Normally, residents are told not to worry about sending thank-you notes after the interview process because ultimately, they don’t affect the decision-making. But one of the applicants this year sent Madison a direct email and called her the best coordinator in the country.
“That’s why I keep doing it,” she says, “because I feel like I’m making a difference.”
