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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Academic Ophthalmology 2021; 13(02): e298-e303
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1736215
Editorial

Rabb–Venable Excellence in Ophthalmology Research Program: Contributions to Ophthalmology Workforce Diversity

O'Rese J. Knight 
1   Department of Ophthalmology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
,
Dolly Ann Padovani-Claudio
2   Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
,
Clarisse C. Croteau-Chonka
3   And So It Begins, LLC
,
Mildred M.G. Olivier
4   Department of Surgery, Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois
,
Eydie G. Miller-Ellis
5   Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
› Author Affiliations Funding National Eye Institute.
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The 2016 Health Resources and Services Administration, Health Workforce Analysis estimated that ophthalmology is the surgical specialty with the greatest physician shortage. Based on their estimates, the ophthalmology workforce needs to expand by 33% to 22,690 full time equivalents to meet its 2025 patient care demand.[1] Despite the need to expand the ophthalmology workforce, the number of underrepresented in medicine (URiM) ophthalmology trainees decreased from 8.7 to 7.7% between 2005 and 2015.[2] Patients from underrepresented groups, including Black/African Americans, Latinx, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, comprised 30.7% of the U.S. population in the same period. [Table 1] summarizes the racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. population, current ophthalmology workforce, and ophthalmology trainee pathway. The disproportionate ratio of URiM ophthalmologists compared with patients likely accounts for a significant portion of the racial/ethnic disparities in care delivery and eye health outcomes.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Ample evidence demonstrates that health care utilization and care outcomes improve with patient–physician racial concordance and that URiM physicians are more likely to work in medically underserved communities.[9] [10] However, despite an increase in the total number of ophthalmology residency training positions offered through the SF Match to meet the patient care demand,[11] the number of URiM physicians matching in ophthalmology residency programs between 2016 and 2020 remained flat at 8.4% per year.[12] As the number of ophthalmology residency training positions increases, specific effort should be made to recruit talented URiM medical students into ophthalmology. Racial concordance is associated with increased cultural competency (providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services) which is expected to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities and improve the quality of health care.[7] The main goal of Rabb–Venable (RV) is to implement interventions to recruit URiM trainees into ophthalmology to reflect the cultural diversity of the community receiving eye care services. This is expected to translate into increased cultural competency and better patient outcomes.

Table 1

Race/ethnicity of the U.S. population, current ophthalmology workforce, and the trainee pathway: the 2019 American Community Survey estimates that 31.6% of the U.S. population are from underrepresented in medicine (URiM) groups, while URiM physicians comprise 6.7% of the current ophthalmology workforce and were awarded 9.7% of the 2019 ophthalmology residency positions

Group

Race/Ethnicity

American Indian and Alaska Native

Asian

Black or African/American

Latinx

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander

White

URiM

Total

2019 US Census estimate[a]

2,236,348

18,427,914

40,596,040

60,481,746

565,473

196,789,401

103,879,607

328,239,523

0.7%

5.6%

12.4%

18.4%

0.2%

60.0%

31.6%

Ophthalmology Workforce (2018)[b]

24

3396

512

726

13

11587

1,275

19,085

0.1%

17.8%

2.7%

3.8%

0.1%

60.7%

6.7%

Undergraduate Enrollment (2015)[c]

194,486

1,285,969

3,363,643

3,918,192

69,079

12,084,691

7,545,400

23,620,218

0.8%

5.4%

14.2%

16.6%

0.3%

51.2%

31.9%

Medical School Applicants (2015)[d]

115

10,122

4,087

3,219

50

25,101

7,471

52,550

0.2%

19.3%

7.8%

6.1%

0.1%

47.8%

14.2%

Medical School Matriculants (2015)[d]

20

3701

1061

854

5

10992

1,940

18,705

0.1%

19.8%

5.7%

4.6%

0.03%

58.8%

10.4%

Medical School Graduates (2019)[e]

38

4,299

1,238

1,063

9

10,879

2,348

19,937

0.2%

21.6%

6.2%

5.3%

0.0%

54.6%

11.8%

SF Match Participants (2019)[f]

–

181

21

48

–

305

69

588

–

30.8%

3.6%

8.2%

–

51.9%

11.7%

Ophthalmology Positions (2019)[f]

–

124

13

34

–

239

47

437

–

28.4%

3.0%

7.8%

–

54.7%

10.8%

a 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates Data


b AMA Physician Masterfile, 2018


c National Center for Education Statistics 12-month unduplicated headcount at Title IV institutions


d AAMC Facts & Figures 2016


e AAMC Diversity in Medicine: Facts and Figures 2019


f AUPO/SF Match Gender & Ethnicity Data: Ophthalmology Residency 2019




Publication History

Received: 25 November 2020

Accepted: 11 May 2021

Article published online:
31 December 2021

© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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