Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 1;137(9):1015-1020.
doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.2427.

Gender Differences in Case Volume Among Ophthalmology Residents

Dan Gong  1 , Bryan J Winn  1 , Casey J Beal  2 , Preston H Blomquist  3 , Royce W Chen  1 , Susan M Culican  4 , Lora R Dagi Glass  1 , Gary F Domeracki  5 , Jeffrey M Goshe  6 , Jeremy K Jones  7 , Albert S Khouri  8 , Gary L Legault  9 , Timothy J Martin  10 , Kelly T Mitchell  11 , Ayman Naseri  12 , Thomas A Oetting  13 , Joshua H Olson  14 , Jeff H Pettey  15 , Maria A Reinoso  16 , Andrew L Reynolds  17 , R Michael Siatkowski  18 , Jeffrey R SooHoo  19 , Grace Sun  20 , Misha F Syed  21 , Jeremiah P Tao  22 , Parisa Taravati  23 , Darrell WuDunn  24 , Lama A Al-Aswad  1   25
Affiliations

Gender Differences in Case Volume Among Ophthalmology Residents

Dan Gong et al. JAMA Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Importance: Although almost equal numbers of male and female medical students enter into ophthalmology residency programs, whether they have similar surgical experiences during training is unclear.

Objective: To determine differences for cataract surgery and total procedural volume between male and female residents during ophthalmology residency.

Design, setting, participants: This retrospective, longitudinal analysis of resident case logs from 24 US ophthalmology residency programs spanned July 2005 to June 2017. A total of 1271 residents were included. Data were analyzed from August 12, 2017, through April 4, 2018.

Main outcomes and measures: Variables analyzed included mean volumes of cataract surgery and total procedures, resident gender, and maternity or paternity leave status.

Results: Among the 1271 residents included in the analysis (815 men [64.1%]), being female was associated with performing fewer cataract operations and total procedures. Male residents performed a mean (SD) of 176.7 (66.2) cataract operations, and female residents performed a mean (SD) of 161.7 (56.2) (mean difference, -15.0 [95% CI, -22.2 to -7.8]; P < .001); men performed a mean (SD) of 509.4 (208.6) total procedures and women performed a mean (SD) of 451.3 (158.8) (mean difference, -58.1 [95% CI, -80.2 to -36.0]; P < .001). Eighty-five of 815 male residents (10.4%) and 71 of 456 female residents (15.6%) took parental leave. Male residents who took paternity leave performed a mean of 27.5 (95% CI, 13.3 to 41.6; P < .001) more cataract operations compared with men who did not take leave, but female residents who took maternity leave performed similar numbers of operations as women who did not take leave (mean difference, -2.0 [95% CI, -18.0 to 14.0]; P = .81). From 2005 to 2017, each additional year was associated with a 5.5 (95% CI, 4.4 to 6.7; P < .001) increase in cataract volume and 24.4 (95% CI, 20.9 to 27.8; P < .001) increase in total procedural volume. This increase was not different between genders for cataract procedure volume (β = -1.6 [95% CI, -3.7 to 0.4]; P = .11) but was different for total procedural volume such that the increase in total procedural volume over time for men was greater than that for women (β = -8.0 [95% CI, -14.0 to -2.1]; P = .008).

Conclusions and relevance: Female residents performed 7.8 to 22.2 fewer cataract operations and 36.0 to 80.2 fewer total procedures compared with their male counterparts from 2005 to 2017, a finding that warrants further exploration to ensure that residents have equivalent surgical training experiences during residency regardless of gender. However, this study included a limited number of programs (24 of 119 [20.2%]). Future research including all ophthalmology residency programs may minimize the selection bias issues present in this study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Chen reported receiving personal fees from Carl Zeiss Meditec, Allergan, and Alimera Sciences, Inc, outside the submitted work. Dr Dagi Glass reported receiving an unrestricted departmental grant to Columbia Ophthalmology from Research to Prevent Blindness during the conduct of the study. Dr Khouri reported receiving grants from Allergan and NJ Health Foundation outside the submitted work. Dr Taravati reported receiving grants from Research to Prevent Blindness during the conduct of the study. Dr Al-Aswad reported serving as the President of Women in Ophthalmology in 2018. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Mean Cataract Surgery Volume by Calendar Year and Gender
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Mean Total Procedural Volume by Calendar Year and Gender
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.2426

References

    1. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education ACGME Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Ophthalmology. https://www.acgme.org/Portals/0/PFAssets/ProgramRequirements/240_ophthal.... Published 2014. Accessed September 1, 2017.
    1. Randleman JB, Wolfe JD, Woodward M, Lynn MJ, Cherwek DH, Srivastava SK. The resident surgeon phacoemulsification learning curve. Arch Ophthalmol. 2007;125(9):1215-1219. doi:10.1001/archopht.125.9.1215 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Taravella MJ, Davidson R, Erlanger M, Guiton G, Gregory D. Characterizing the learning curve in phacoemulsification. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2011;37(6):1069-1075. doi:10.1016/j.jcrs.2010.12.054 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wiggins MN, Warner DB. Resident physician operative times during cataract surgery. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging. 2010;41(5):518-522. doi:10.3928/15428877-20100726-07 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shah DN, Volpe NJ, Abbuhl SB, Pietrobon R, Shah A. Gender characteristics among academic ophthalmology leadership, faculty, and residents: results from a cross-sectional survey. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2010;17(1):1-6. doi:10.3109/09286580903324892 - DOI - PubMed