Volume of Cataract Surgery and Surgeon Gender: The Florida Ambulatory Surgery Center Experience 2005 Through 2012

Abstract

Cataract is the most common surgically reversible cause of vision loss and the most common major surgical procedure performed in the United States. To understand how gender composition might affect differences in health services, we examined the surgeon gender-specific rates of routine cataract surgery performed in ambulatory surgical centers in Florida. Routine cataract surgeries were identified through the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) ambulatory surgery center dataset. The background of individual surgeons was determined by linking license numbers in the dataset to physician profiles publicly available from AHCA. From 2005 through 2012, women ophthalmologists in Florida performed roughly half the annual rate of cataract surgery as their male counterparts. This difference is not explained by greater time in clinical practice for men. Further investigation into the causes of this gender-volume disparity is warranted to determine what roles choice and barriers may play.