UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
DEPARTMENT OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
RESIDENCY TRAINING PROGRAM

Contact Information:
415-476-1922
settele@vision.ucsf.edu

2009 Resident Interview Dates:
November 12, November 19, December 3, December 17

I. OBJECTIVES

The Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco has an integrated residency program, which utilizes the clinical facilities of three major hospitals. These institutions are the University of California Medical Center, the Veterans Administration Hospital and San Francisco General Hospital.

We train five residents per year in each of three residency years. The principal objective of our program is to train outstanding ophthalmologists who have strong backgrounds in basic and clinical ophthalmic science and who are capable of entering any future career pathway in the vision science field including ophthalmic practice, and/or ophthalmic teaching and research. It is our intention to provide this training through a combination of excellent formal teaching sessions throughout residency, exposure to appropriate clinical cases at all levels, and ongoing close relationships between residents and an outstanding faculty. The programmatic areas covered in our residency are ophthalmic basic science, ophthalmic pathology, orbital and adnexal diseases, plastic and reconstructive surgery, conjunctival and corneal diseases and surgery including refractive surgery, ocular microbiology, uveitis, diseases and surgery of the lens, glaucoma and glaucoma surgery, vitreoretinal diseases, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, neuro-ophthalmology, ocular oncology, and ocular emergency care and trauma. We attempt to teach critical, inquisitive, and innovative thinking, and we provide research opportunities to all interested residents.

To access service, training year and site-specific goals and objectives for our residency training program, please click here to view (or right-click to download) our Goals and Objectives Booklet.

II. Eligibility Policy

Applicants are eligible for appointment to the Department of Ophthalmology if they meet one of the following requirements: (a) Graduate of a US or Canadian medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. (b) Graduate of colleges of osteopathic medicine in the US accredited by the American Osteopathic Association. (c) Graduates of medical school outside of the United States and Canada who either (i) have a currently valid certificate from the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates prior to appointment, or (ii) have a full and unrestricted license to practice medicine in a US licensing jurisdiction in which they are in training

All applicants entering ophthalmology training programs must have taken a post-graduate clinical year (PGY-1) in a program accredited by either the ACGME or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The PGY-1 year must include training in which the resident has primary responsibility for patient care in fields such as internal medicine, neurology, pediatrics, surgery, family practice, or emergency medicine. At minimum, six months of this year must be a broad experience in direct patient care.

III. ORGANIZATION OF TEACHING SERVICES AND FACULTY

Our faculty consists of 31 full-time members including 15 Professors of Ophthalmology, 7 Associate Professors of Ophthalmology and 9 Assistant Professors of Ophthalmology. In addition, we have a large clinical faculty of more than 100 individuals including 8 Emeritus Professors and Clinical Professors, many of whom are world renowned and are very active in our teaching programs.

The department has numerous subspecialty clinical services including cornea and external eye diseases, refractive surgery, anterior segment surgery, glaucoma, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, neuro-ophthalmology, vitreoretinal disease, uveitis, ophthalmic plastic, reconstructive and orbital surgery, ocular oncology, ophthalmic pathology, pharmacology, electrophysiology, visual fields and perimetry, ophthalmic genetics, refraction, optics and contact lenses. Each of these services is integrated into our teaching program through a combination of case study teaching in the clinical setting and formal seminars, conferences, and rounds utilizing audio-visual materials, lectures, and patient presentations.

IV. ORGANIZATION OF FORMAL TEACHING SESSIONS

Each year is divided into a ten week summer period directed at first year residents and the remainder of the academic year during which the ongoing conferences and teaching sessions are scheduled. In the ten weeks of the summer, first year residents are given a core course in ophthalmic knowledge each day of the week between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. and all day on Thursdays. The balance of the first year residents' time is spent in the general clinic seeing patients in very small numbers at first and only gradually increasing to larger numbers toward the end of the summer. In the first week, a first year resident will have one patient scheduled per half day and will be instructed on that patient by one faculty member. Subsequently, the patient numbers will be increased to two per half day and then gradually to three per half day, four per half day, etc. This summer curriculum is designed to introduce the resident to necessary basic information in ophthalmology concurrently with a gradually graded clinical experience. By the end of the summer session, residents are competent to do skillful ophthalmic examinations with enough basic information to benefit maximally from their subsequent clinical experiences throughout residency.
Following the summer curriculum for first year residents, the formal conference and seminar schedule proceeds throughout the remainder of the academic year. A monthly calendar is published and sent to all residents and faculty concerning conference times, topics, and participants.

A typical week of teaching sessions includes an external disease conference Wednesday morning between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m.. On Thursday, residents participate in rounds and teaching conferences for the majority of the day. The schedule for Thursday is as follows: 7:30 - 8:30 a.m., Morbidity, Mortality and Microsurgery; 8:30-9:15 a.m., patient case presentations and discussions; 9:15 - 10:15, grand rounds lecture given by a visiting professor or a faculty member; 10:30 - 3:00, a series of subspecialty conferences including glaucoma, plastic surgery, oncology, pathology, external disease, uveitis, vitreoretinal diseases, and pediatric ophthalmology. The majority of these lectures rotate on a two-year cycle. From 12:30 to 2 p.m. each Thursday, there is a fluorescein and fundus photography conference given by members of the Retina faculty.

In addition, a 2-day intensive course in orbital anatomy with cadaver dissection is given for first and third year residents. A 5-day course in ophthalmic microsurgery for each resident class occurs yearly. Residents also attend a 1-day hands-on ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery course each year. Residents are present at the yearly 2-3 day Continuing Education Course given by the Department of Ophthalmology of UCSF. A basic science course based on the format of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Basic and Clinical Science course (Fundamentals of Ophthalmology) is conducted for first and second year residents. This course takes place one week per year for the first two years of residency. Residents attend the annual Cordes Eye Society Meeting, at which former residents of the Department of Ophthalmology at UCSF give presentations.

V. RESIDENT ROTATIONS

The first year is divided into five 10-week blocks, with the first block being the summer session, described above. In the subsequent 40 weeks of the first year, two rotations are at the University of California (UC) Medical Center, one rotation is at the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital and one rotation is at the San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). One of the rotations at the UC Medical Center focuses on ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery, while the other encompasses a broad range of exposure to subspecialty areas of ophthalmology. Ophthalmic pathology and contact lens fitting are incorporated into these rotations. Each of the rotations at the VA and SFGH involve the comprehensive care of patients with eye diseases, both medical and surgical. Inpatient consultations, night call and emergency experience is obtained during all four rotations.

The second and third years of the residency program are divided into five 10 week rotations. Two of these blocks are spent at the UC Medical Center and one each at the VA and at SFGH. At any one time, with the exception of the summer months, there is a first, second and third year present at both the VA and at SFGH. In the second year at UC Medical Center, each resident rotates for 10 weeks on the neuro-ophthalmology and pediatric service. An additional 10 weeks are spent on the vitreoretinal service studying both medical and surgical retinal diseases. The remaining 10 weeks are divided between a 5 week cornea rotation and a 5 week research experience of the resident's choosing, which may include international travel if desired.

At the conclusion of the second year, a significant amount of ophthalmic surgery plus all specialty rotations have been experienced. This qualifies each resident to function as a chief resident on each service through which he or she rotates. The four third year rotations include the UC Cornea, Anterior Segment and Refractive surgery service, the UC Glaucoma and Oncology service, the VA Hospital, and San Francisco General Hospital.

VI. RESPONSIBILITIES AND SURGERY

It should be apparent from the foregoing that residents progress through our program into positions of increasing responsibility. From early in the first year, ophthalmic outpatients are managed by residents with close supervision. By the third year, residents take care of patients with only minimal supervision. All residents have the opportunity to run services as chief resident, and all residents have the opportunity to do all levels of surgery which are part of ophthalmic practice. The actual surgery done, both in type and quantity of cases, depends on the faculty assessment of each particular resident's capabilities and clinical maturity.

VII. DEPARTMENT RESEARCH

Research opportunities for residents are made available when the residents' aptitude, interest, and willingness are apparent. All second and third year residents are expected to present the results of a research project at an annual meeting. The Department of Ophthalmology has more than 40,000 sq. ft. of space devoted to research laboratories, including an electron microscope. Our microsurgical laboratory, equipped in a virtually identical manner to an operating room suite, is available and is used for training of residents in microsurgical techniques. There are over 20 funded research grants in the Department, a CORE Research Center Grant, and a total federal funding for vision science in the institution which is one of the largest in the United States.

VIII. FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The Department of Ophthalmology offers both research and clinical fellowships for a fourth or fifth year of training beyond residency. Research positions are in the majority, and every effort has been made to assure that these fellowships are of the highest quality but do not interfere with the basic residency. The principal mechanism for achieving this end has been to situate the surgically related fellowships in major ophthalmic practices on which a resident is not always present. Through this mechanism, competition for surgical cases between residents and fellows is minimized. On the other hand, fellows attend our teaching conferences, see patients in our group consultation sessions, and attend surgical cases for the residents at the VA and San Francisco General Hospitals. The resident-fellow interaction, therefore, is ongoing and stimulating.

IX. SUMMARY

The Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco is devoted to academic excellence. It trains outstanding ophthalmologists through a fortunate combination of a renowned and highly qualified faculty, an appropriate level of clinical material available in varied clinical settings, excellent physical facilities, and high caliber residents, fellows, and students. Further information about Graduate Medical Education at UCSF can be found here.