Click here for a PDF of the Ophthalmology Residency brochure.
The Cole Eye Institute opened its doors in 1999 and is one of the most advanced facilities of its type in the world. Our staff of internationally recognized experts care for more patients than any other eye institute in the United States and we have the most active, continuous medical education programs in the country.
The Residency Training Program's mission is to produce superbly trained clinical and academic ophthalmologists and to inspire residents to become leaders in patient care, teaching, and vision research. The program meets all the requirements of the American Board of Ophthalmology and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The three-year program is divided into required rotations and residents work under the direct supervision of the staff during all rotations.
Interviews are held in November and December. Applications for residency must be processed through the Ophthalmology Match Program (via the Central Application Service) - http://www.sfmatch.org/.
During training, residents rotate among the division's nine departments and a resident-run clinic at Metro-Health Medical Center, while completing their board requirements. The nine departments are:
- Cornea and External Disease
- Glaucoma
- Neuro-Ophthalmology
- Ophthalmic Pathology
- Ophthalmic Plastic, Reconstructive and Orbital Surgery
- Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus
- Refractive Surgery
- Retina and Vitreous
- Uveitis, Ocular Inflammatory Disease, and Immunology
This curriculum provides a balanced exposure to all subspecialty areas of ophthalmology, ensuring graduates the ability to perform general ophthalmology with skill, knowledge, and confidence. Each resident works in a one-on-one relationship with a staff physician. We feel this provides the best opportunity to study disease processes and their medical and surgical management. This arrangement also provides excellent supervision and optimal continuity of patient care in the outpatient and hospital settings.
Residents are also expected to participate in clinical and basic research activities utilizing the staff's expertise. Residents complete independent clinical research projects which involve reviewing the literature, developing a hypothesis, and designing and executing the study. Research activities are carefully supervised by an experienced clinical investigator. Residents are expected to submit and present their research at national meetings and to write several papers for publication based on their research activities. Each June, ophthalmology residents, fellows, and staff participate in the annual Residents' and Alumni Meeting, a scientific forum for the presentation of research projects.
Third-year residents are on call from home approximately every fourth night for a total of 13 weeks over the course of the year. The resident on call is backed up by two staff physicians who are also on call.
Facilities available to assist residents include an up-to-date ophthalmic library that features journals, reference texts, videos, and CD-ROMs. Diagnostic and treatment resources include argon diode and dye lasers, corneal topography, electrophysiology, endothelial microscopy, excimer lasers, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, optical nerve head analyzers, optical coherence tomography, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, and ultrasonography.
For more information about residency and fellowship programs at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, click here: www.clevelandclinic.org/education/gme/
