Abstract
Purpose :
To assess educational background, scholarly output, and demographic characteristics of neuro-ophthalmology fellowship program directors (FPDs) through cross-sectional analysis.
Methods :
All neuro-ophthalmology FPDs from programs that participated in the 2022 San Francisco Match were included. Demographic characteristics were collected through online search of publicly available resources. Scholarly output was measured by the h-index and the number of peer-reviewed publications.
Results :
Among the 33 FPDs analyzed, 24 were male (72.7%). On average, male FPDs (58.08 ± 10.91) were significantly older than female FPDs (49.33 ± 7.95) (p=0.02). There was no significant difference in the academic output between male and female FPDs, though there was a small trend of male FPDs having a higher average Hirsch index (h-index) (24.96 ± 14.53) than female FPDs (16.22 ± 17.25) (p=0.20). Another observed trend was that male FPDs achieved higher academic rank, such as professor, department chair, and distinguished chair compared to female FPDs. 25 out of the 33 FPDs (75.8%) completed ophthalmology residency before neuro-ophthalmology fellowship. 10 FPDs (33.3%) obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in addition to their medical degree. Most FPDs completed medical school in the United States (84.8%) and obtained an allopathic medical degree (93.9%).
Conclusions :
The disproportionate ratio of male to female FPDs in neuro-ophthalmology is consistent with gender disparities across several ophthalmology fellowship programs. Factors impacting greater scholarly output among male FPDs in neuro-ophthalmology may include longer career length in academics due to age difference.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.