Ophthalmology Training Opportunities for International Ophthalmologists and Medical Students in the United States

By Vinay A. Shah, MD and Rahul Bhola, MD

Introduction

With an increase in globalization of technology, there is a growing need for global interdependence and especially in the medical field. Despite the existing misdistribution of health care access, most countries aim at achieving a balanced growth and distribution of health care resources with equal access to both preventive and curative health care measures. One of the major prerequisites for achieving this goal is appropriate medical education and training. Even though more than 1600 medical schools exist worldwide there are no set international standards and guidelines to judge the quality of both basic as well as advanced medical education and curriculum. We feel that increased educational exchange between institutions world-wide will be beneficial to all involved and improve medical education worldwide. The mission of exchange of training is continuing education for ophthalmologists, prevention of blindness, and promotion of scientific and cultural exchange among ophthalmologists of the world. It will also provide a forum for professionals from all over the world to gather and focus on ways to standardize and improve ophthalmic knowledge and skills for the improvement of patient care. This is a symbiotic relationship in that both the academic institution offering training benefits by – both what the trainee brings to the table and what they take back with them in practice. This is especially important in academic practice because the information and experience is passed along to physicians in training in their home country.

There are over 300 major teaching hospitals in the United States of America of which fewer than 125 participate in graduate medical education (GME). Ophthalmology residency training is offered in over 110 institutions with a total number of residency positions being more than 430 positions per year.

Ophthalmology

In the US, ophthalmologists are among the most professionally satisfied physicians. The broad scope of ophthalmic practice including both the medical and surgical aspect, treatment of pediatric and adult patients, and provision of primary care as well as highly specialized treatment make ophthalmology a desirable specialty. Technological and scientific advances allow both diagnostic and therapeutic precision that are unavailable in many other medical and surgical specialties. Ophthalmology has enjoyed more than its share of scientific and technological breakthroughs in medicine. There are locations throughout the US with relative shortages and others with relative surpluses of comprehensive (general) ophthalmologists and ophthalmologic subspecialists. Overall, ophthalmology continues to be an attractive field of medicine with great opportunities.

With the advances in ophthalmology the need for subspecialty training is increasing. From previous decades, American ophthalmology training has attracted both local and international graduates from all parts of the world. It is usually a challenge to procure a desirable training position for foreign medical graduates and post-graduates in the United States of America. In these articles, we will give and discuss an overview of graduate medical education (GME) with special emphasis on basic as well as advanced Ophthalmology training for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) in the USA. Through this section of Pearls in Ophthalmology we hope to bridge the gap between U.S. and Foreign Ophthalmologists and training programs.

Proposed Topics in the upcoming issues of PIO include:

1. Visas: Different types of U.S. visas for Trainees

2. Training Opportunities for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs): Basic, Specialty, and Subspecialty.

3. Short term Fellowships and ObservershipsLong term Programs (For FMG’s): Research, Fellowship, and Clinical Fellowship.

4. Residency
- Internship
- CV/Research/Contacts/Meetings, etc…
- Application
- Visa (J vs H, EAD, Green Card or Citizen)
- Interview
- Match
- Individual Stories and lessons learnt

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