Preservation and Restoration of Vision:

Vision for the Future, Part 1: Ophthalmic Education and Training: Ophthalmology Resident Physician Education and Training

On this page:

• Objectives
  
  
• Results
  
  
• Task Force Action Plan

Objectives

Ophthalmology resident and specialist education and training objectives are to instill the knowledge, skills and professional values that qualify a physician for the prevention, diagnosis, medical care, surgical management and rehabilitation of eye and visual system disease.

Essential elements relate to systemic medical disease; the ophthalmic manifestations of systemic disease such as hypertension, metabolic disease (e.g., diabetes mellitus) and neurologic disease; eye diseases including amblyopia, strabismus, cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, uveitis, infectious and non-infectious inflammatory disease; genetic and degenerative eye disease; injuries to the eye and visual system; and refractive disorders.

Essential components of ophthalmology education and training are regular assessment of knowledge, extensive interaction with and supervision by experienced ophthalmologists, interactions with physicians engaged in other aspects of medicine and professional associations with allied ophthalmic personnel.

Results

Results to be obtained by ophthalmology resident and specialist physician education activities include:

1. Development and dissemination of a universally applicable curriculum for education and training of ophthalmologists. This curriculum must be broad and flexible in recognition of the differences among population groups, disease prevalence rates, socioeconomic factors and environmental considerations related to health care delivery throughout the world.
   
   
2. Development of a model for teaching ophthalmic surgery and evaluating ophthalmic surgery skills including the preoperative evaluation and postoperative care of patients.
   
   
3. Utilization by all ophthalmology resident physicians and training programs of an objective system for assessing knowledge during education.

   If a validated assessment program is not otherwise available, the International Council of Ophthalmology Assessments for Ophthalmologists (the Basic Science Assessment and the Clinical Sciences Assessment) should be utilized.

Task Force Action Plan

The Ophthalmology Resident and Specialist Physician Training and Education Task Force recognizes that there are at least 45 million blind people worldwide and an additional 135 million visually handicapped people throughout the globe.

Accordingly, the need for ophthalmologists with a high level of education and training is of critical importance, particularly in some developing countries in which an adequate number of skilled professionals is not currently available.

The Task Force will focus on the curriculum that is universally applicable to ophthalmology resident physicians, while recognizing the great variations in social and economic status throughout regions of the world and the urgent need to eliminate avoidable blindness.

With this perspective, the Task Force anticipates a spectrum of ophthalmology resident physician training requirements that will be applicable to the various regions of the world. Specific actions planned by the Task Force include:

1. Review of ophthalmology resident physician training curricula from different continents and nations to develop a core curriculum universally applicable for ophthalmology resident physician training worldwide.
   
   

   This will be flexible and incorporate a spectrum of training that will vary in duration and content to facilitate application in regions with diverse disease prevalence, social organization and economic status.

2. Develop a model for teaching ophthalmic surgery and evaluating surgical skills that incorporates preoperative evaluation and postoperative care of patients.
   
   
3. Encourage organizations and publishers to distribute educational materials to ophthalmologists in training and to ophthalmology resident physician programs worldwide.
   
   
4. Encourage support for equipment needed to train ophthalmology resident physicians in approved resident physician programs, particularly in the use of technology for the advance of ophthalmic care standards worldwide.
   
   
5. Stimulate use of the International Council of Ophthalmology basic science and clinical sciences assessment programs by ophthalmology residents and ophthalmology resident training programs, especially in countries and programs that do not have an alternate objective assessment program at this time.
   
   
6. Promote commitment to the Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness/VISION 2020 and the twinning of ophthalmology educational centers in developed and developing countries to accelerate the advance of ophthalmic training worldwide.

Next: Ophthalmic Education and Training - Allied Ophthalmic Personnel Training

Also see: Table of Contents for the Vision for the Future