Abstract
Purpose :
The training of both comprehensive and diverse subspecialist ophthalmologists is essential to meet long-term public health needs and market demands. The factors that determine the career decision of ophthalmology residents are poorly understood and likely reflect a combination of individual interests and goals as well as the influence of residency training. We hypothesize that resident career choice may be affected by the representation of teaching faculty involved in their education in both comprehensive and subspecialty fields.
Methods :
Publicly available fellowship match data was obtained from ophthalmology residency program websites between the 2013-2022 match cycles. The proportion of ophthalmology residents who matched into the following subspecialties - glaucoma, retina, cornea, uveitis, neuro-ophthalmology, pediatrics, oculoplastics, oncology, and pathology - or pursued comprehensive care was determined at each program. The proportion of faculty members trained in each of these fields and the specialties of the chair, program director (PD), and assistant program directors (APD) were also determined. Programs with fewer than 5 years of fellowship match data were excluded. Composition-composition regression between resident career choice and faculty composition was performed and analysis of variance (ANOVA) for this regression was determined.
Results :
A total of 86 ophthalmology programs including 3018 residents and 2410 faculty members met inclusion criteria, covering an average of 8.43 years of match data per program. Roughly 72% of residents pursued fellowship while 28% of residents entered comprehensive care. Composition-composition regression demonstrated a significant relationship between proportion of residents pursuing subspecialties for fellowship training and the proportion of faculty in said specialties at a given institution (ANOVA p-value <0.01). Exploratory data analysis comparing the specialty of the chair, PD, and APD with the fellowship choice of residents at each individual program did not demonstrate a significant relationship.
Conclusions :
Although the career choice of individual ophthalmology residents is influenced by a combination of factors including interests, goals, and training, the relative proportion of teaching faculty representing each ophthalmic subspecialty at individual programs seems to correlate with the collective career decisions of residents graduating from these programs.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.