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

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

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