Purpose
To analyze the academic background, scholarly achievements, and demographic characteristics of all US ophthalmology residency program directors (PDs).
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Methods
Online search of publicly available resources conducted from February 16, 2019, to February 26, 2019. Study population: 116 ophthalmology residency PDs. Main outcome measurements were demographic and academic data.
Results
A total of 116 program directors were analyzed. Eighty-four of 116 (72%) PDs were male. The average age was 50.0 years old. The mean age at appointment was 42.9 years old. Ninety-three percent graduated from an American medical school, and 97% received an MD degree. Twenty percent of PDs completed an additional graduate degree, most commonly a master’s degree (7 of 23) and doctor of philosophy (7 of 23). Seventy-eight percent completed a fellowship, with the most frequent in glaucoma (24%), cornea and external diseases (22%), and neuroophthalmology (21%). The mean number of publications according to PubMed was 17.6 (range, 0–92). There were no significant differences between the average number of publications by male PDs and those by female PDs (19.2 ± 20.5 vs. 13.5 ± 23.1, respectively; P = 0.21). On average, the H-index was 8.7 (range, 0–35) and was higher in male than in female PDs (9.8 ± 8.3 vs. 5.4 ± 4.0, respectively; P = 0.01).
Conclusions
Ophthalmology PDs are predominantly male with fellowship training in glaucoma, cornea, or neuro-ophthalmology. Women remain underrepresented, and future efforts should be aimed at addressing this disparity.
According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), a residency program director (PD) is responsible for developing, overseeing, and improving the program he or she leads. The PD is charged with residents’ personal and professional development as well as the oversight of patient care. In ophthalmology, as in many other medical fields, the appointment of PD is a mark of professional achievement. Although PDs serve an integral role in residency education, little is known about the background and demographic characteristics of these individuals. The purpose of this study was to analyze the academic background, scholarly achievements, and demographic characteristics of all US ophthalmology residency PDs!!.
Methods
This study was designed as a cross-sectional study. A list of current ophthalmology PDs was obtained from all active ophthalmology residency programs in the United States that participate in the San Francisco Match on January 29, 2019. In total, 116 programs were selected, excluding those with military affiliation.
Information for each PD was then obtained from freely available sources including the program’s website, the ACGME website, and the online curriculum vitae from February 16, 2019, to February 26, 2019. Data gathered included each PD’s age, sex, medical school attended, graduation year, additional degrees earned, residency and fellowship program completed, subspecialty practiced, and the year he or she was appointed PD. The age of each PD was recorded using Healthgrades ( https://www.healthgrades.com/ ). Of note, 13 of 116 PDs did not have an age available and were excluded from any age-related analysis. The year each PD graduated from his/her residency program was obtained using Doximity ( https://www.doximity.com/ ) and other publicly available resources such as the program’s website and the online curriculum vitae.
Scholarly activity was evaluated by entering the first name and middle initial, when available, and full last name into the National Library of Medicine PubMed website ( https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.easyaccess2.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/pubmed ) and Scopus ( https://www-scopus-com.easyaccess2.lib.cuhk.edu.hk ). The total number of peer-reviewed publications was recorded as well as the Hirsch index (H-index) which measures academic productivity. The H-index measures impact of an investigator’s contribution to research by taking into consideration both the number of publications and the number of citations of each of those papers.
Data were recorded and analyzed using Excel 2016 software (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, Washington). Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25.0 (IBM, Armonk, New York) for Windows (Microsoft) and significance was set at a P value of ≤0.05.
Results
Of the 116 ophthalmology programs reviewed, 84 of 116 (72%) had a male PD, and 32 of 116 (28%) had a female PD. The current average age of PDs is 50.0 ± 10.2 years old (median, 47.5; range, 34–79 years) ( Figure 1 ). The average age at time of appointment was 42.9 ± 9.8 years, (median, 39; range, 31–72 years) after a mean of 10.7 ± 9.1 years (median, 7; range, 2–41) postresidency completion. Sixty-seven of 116 PDs (58%) were appointed within the last 5 years ( Figure 2 ), and the current average term served is 6.60 ± 5.5 years (median, 5; range, 0–23 years).
The majority of PDs attended medical school in the United States (108 of 116, 93%), whereas 8 of 116 (7%) graduated from an international school. The locations of international schools attended included Canada, the Caribbean, Colombia, Egypt, India, Israel, Mexico, and Turkey. The medical schools with the greatest number of graduates included Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and University of Pennsylvania College of Medicine (4 of 116, 3%, per school) ( Table 1 ). Ninety-seven percent of PDs (113 of 116) have an MD degree whereas 3% (3 of 116) have a DO degree. Twenty percent (23 of 116) of PDs have an additional graduate degree, the most common ones being master of science (7 of 23, 30%) and doctor of philosophy (7 of 23, 30%).
| Medical School (State) | PDs |
| Baylor College of Medicine (TX) | 4 |
| University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (PA) | 4 |
| Harvard Medical School (MA) | 4 |
| Emory University School of Medicine (GA) | 3 |
| University of Alabama School of Medicine (AL) | 3 |
| Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (OH) | 3 |
| Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY) | 3 |
| University of Florida College of Medicine (FL) | 3 |
| Jefferson Medical College (NY) | 3 |
| Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (IL) | 3 |
| Residency Program (State) | PDs |
| Wayne State University (MI) | 4 |
| Wilmer Eye Institute (MD) | 3 |
| University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (IA) | 3 |
| Baylor College of Medicine (TX) | 3 |
| Rush University Medical Center (IL) | 3 |
| Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary (MA) | 3 |
| Montefiore Medical Center (NY) | 3 |
| Wills Eye Hospital (PA) | 3 |
| Akron City Hospital (OH) | 2 |
| University of Wisconsin (WI) | 2 |
| Fellowship Program (State) | PDs |
| Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (FL) | 6 |
| Wills Eye Hospital (PA) | 6 |
| University of Utah (UT) | 4 |
| University of Texas Southwestern (TX) | 3 |
| Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary (MA) | 3 |
| Duke University Medical Center (NC) | 3 |
| Wilmer Eye Institute (MD) | 3 |
| University of Illinois Hospital (IL) | 2 |
| Devers Eye Institute (CO) | 2 |
| University of Oklahoma (OK) | 2 |
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