Global Health Content on U.S. Ophthalmology Residency Program Websites

Purpose: There is high interest among ophthalmology applicants and current trainees to participate in global health experiences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the availability of information on global healthcare opportunities for prospective ophthalmology residency applicants on program websites, and to determine whether there is a correlation between residency program characteristics and availability of global opportunities for prospective trainees. Methods: All ACGME accredited U.S. postgraduate training programs in ophthalmology were included, except those without a website. A cross-sectional review of program websites was conducted from January to March 2023 to evaluate for the presence of 11 predetermined criteria. Program characteristics including region, number of residents, affiliation, and integration of the PGY-1 year were collected and a Kruskal- Wallis test was used to determine the association between these characteristics and criteria present. Results: There were 118 ophthalmology programs eligible for inclusion. The mean number of criteria present among all programs was 1.84 ± 2.73. Forty-seven (39.8%) programs had at least one criteria present on their website. Only 22 (18.64%) programs had at least half (≥5) of the criteria present. The most frequently present criteria was information on existing opportunities for international rotations, found in 42 (35.9%) programs. The least frequently present criteria was information on opportunities for residents to create their own rotation, found in 5 (4.24%) programs. Programs in the West (3.62 ± 3.36) had a greater number of global ophthalmology criteria compared to those in the Midwest (2.51 ± 3.07), Northeast (1.02 ± 2.16), Southeast (1.92 ± 2.64), and Southwest (0.57 ± 1.51) [p = 0.0086]. Programs with more than 22 residents (3.83 ± 3.71) had more criteria present compared to programs with 5-9 (0.56 ± 1.70), 10-15 (2.03 ± 2.79), or 16-21 residents (3.40 ± 2.92) [p=0.0006]. Conclusion: Less than half of programs made any mention of global ophthalmology opportunities on their websites. However, there was a correlation between size of the residency training program and robustness of global ophthalmology opportunities listed on the programs website. This study advocates for stronger communication regarding global ophthalmology opportunities present at training institutions across the nation.