Program Review - University of Michigan, Kellogg Eye Center, Residency Program in Ophthalmology

By Jeff Zink, MD

The University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology is one of the oldest academic departments in the country. There is a tremendous tradition of clinical training excellence in all the medical and surgical departments at the University of Michigan. The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences is no exception.

When choosing a residency program, the most important criteria I used was whether graduated residents felt well trained in all aspects of ophthalmology. To me, this meant feeling comfortable practicing comprehensive ophthalmology with a broad scope of practice. After completing training at Kellogg, I can honestly say that you will have the medical and surgical training to practice excellent comprehensive ophthalmology or pursue subspecialty training.

The surgical training at Michigan is excellent. During the first year, residents are primary surgeon on lasers, enucleations, plastics procedures, and strabismus surgeries. In the second year, residents progress to intraocular surgeries including some cataracts, more complicated laser procedures, and gain additional experience in strabismus, retina, cornea, glaucoma, and oculoplastic surgery. The third year is filled with more subspecialty surgery, cataract surgery, ocular trauma, and LASIK surgery for those interested. Dr. Shahzad Mian (currently the program director) and the other cornea faculty encourage residents to do LASIK cases. As with most programs, the more motivated you are to generate our own LASIK cases, the greater the reward in experience.

A unique aspect of the Michigan residency is the first and third year consult rotation. Time is spent with Dr. John Trobe who is one of the great teachers in ophthalmology. He is the kind of person under which every resident should have the privilege of training with. Every week the residents have multidisciplinary rounds with the neurology and neuroradiology services while on this rotation. This offers a chance to discuss interesting cases with experts in the other subspecialties and keeps the residents in touch with other aspects of medicine.

The faculty at Michigan is very approachable and many of the senior faculty are leaders in their respective sub-specialties. Michigan also has a great number of young faculty that are “rising stars” offering fresh perspectives with a great interest in resident teaching. Dr. Paul Lichter, the department chair, sets a great tone for the residency by encouraging academic and clinical excellence while maintaining a nurturing environment.

Looking to the future, Kellogg will soon have a new building that will provide the clinical and research space needed for the department to continue to grow. This will enable Kellogg to have the patient volume, faculty, teaching space, and research resources to maintain an excellent training program.

If you become a resident at Kellogg you will find a collegial atmosphere, world class faculty, abundant research opportunities, and talented residents. Perhaps the ultimate test of a residency program is whether recent graduates would recommend the program to future ophthalmologist in training. I enthusiastically recommend the University of Michigan program to medical students currently applying for residency training positions in ophthalmology.