University of Virginia Health System

Residency Information

The three-year residency program is designed to provide the resident with gradually increasing responsibility. Dr. Nicola Ghazi is the Director of Resident Education.

The residents spend most of the first year in the General Eye Clinic, gaining experience with outpatient medical and surgical ophthalmology as well as learning techniques in refraction. The first year residents attend the Contact Lens Clinic, the Oculoplastics Clinic, the Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinic, and the Cornea Clinic. During the first year, residents begin surgical training by assisting the full-time faculty, and they also start to perform cases as the primary surgeon. The residents are encouraged to practice surgery on eye-bank eyes in the minor operating room and on animals in the research facility OR. The first year resident serves as the primary surgeon on minor oculoplastics cases.

The second year is devoted to ophthalmic subspecialty service rotations. This provides the resident an opportunity to consolidate his knowledge in each of the subspecialty areas. The extensive clinical volume and unusual pathology help to broaden the experience obtained during the first year. The resident also assists in the performance of the surgery done on each of the subspecialty services. One-half day a week is devoted to the General Ophthalmology Service to enable the resident to maintain follow-up and continuity in the care of complicated patients seen during the first year. Second year residents are also responsible for all of the strabismus surgery scheduled through the pediatric ophthalmology clinic and will perform cataract surgery under the supervision of the full-time attending staff.

During the third year, the resident spends four months at the Salem VA Hospital and the remaining eight months in the general eye clinic. Responsibilities include supervision of the first year residents, performing surgery generated by the clinic, and serving as the principal consultant to the other clinical services at the Medical Center.

A one to two year Retina-Vitreous Fellowship is sponsored by the Department.

Teaching Conferences

Conferences are scheduled from 7:30/8:00 to 9:00 AM weekday. Grand Rounds are presented once a week, emphasizing clinical topics, diagnosis and treatment. An outline for the presentation is required a month in advance. The outline should include one or two learning objectives. The responsibility for Grand Rounds is shared by the residents and faculty on a rotating basis. The part-time faculty are encouraged to bring in patients from outside the Medical Center for presentation. A Quality Assurance (QA) Outcomes Case Review occurs every two months.  A Clinicopathological Conference (CPC) occurs monthly. Glaucoma conference is held twice a month. Neuro-ophthalmology lectures are held weekly. An oculoplastics lecture is given on an arranged basis. A retina lecture is given weekly. Optics and Refraction are covered in a comphrehensive lecture series annually. A fluorescein angiography conference is held weekly, preceding Grand Rounds. Corneal lectures are held twice a month. Microscopic pathology on glass slides is available for resident review and the Lancaster Ocular Pathology Course is available through the Claude Moore Library. A nine-headed Olympus microscope makes simultaneous review of microscopic slides possible. The small size of the program allows the teaching conferences not only to be didactic but also to involve active participation by all residents in an informal atmosphere.

Resident Research Program

Residents are encouraged to undertake clinical or laboratory research, either starting their own individual projects or joining an established ongoing faculty project. A research fund is available to provide materials, animals and technical assistance for resident- planned projects. While not mandatory, the presentation of project results, with eventual publication, is strongly encouraged. Residents have taken an active role in participating in the Virginia Society of Ophthalmology Meeting held yearly as well as the ARVO (The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) and AAO (American Academy of Ophthalmology) meetings.

Benefits

For information concerning salaries, benefits, parking, meals, etc., please check the Housestaff Homepage.

Environment

Any training program is colored in part by the milieu of the surrounding academic center. The Medical Center at the University of Virginia lies adjacent to the central Grounds of Thomas Jefferson's original academical village. Charlottesville and Albemarle County attract cultural and cosmopolitan functions out of proportion to its 125,000 population supplemented by the 23,000 members of the University campus. First class restaurants, museums and entertainment are available year round. Washington, D.C. is 120 miles away and there are excellent regular air connections to Washington, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cincinnati. The countryside surrounding Charlottesville is particularly attractive with rolling hills, vineyards, horse and cattle farms all in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Skyline Drive, twenty miles from Charlottesville, and the Appalachian Trail provide some of the best hiking in the United States. A ski area is within an hour's drive, with night skiing available. Across the Blue Ridge Mountains, the vistas of the Shenandoah Valley and the rivers and mountains of West Virginia provide some of the best white water canoeing and rafting in the world. Medical students, hospital staff and faculty have a share in the stimulating and picturesque ambience of University life within Piedmont Virginia.

Summary

Training of residents is the main focus of the faculty at the University of Virginia. The strong clinical foundation of the Department and the extensive clinical referral population are the principal strengths of the training program. Academic achievement is emphasized. The majority of our recent graduates have gone on to take high quality post-residency fellowships and, after completion of fellowship training, several have assumed full-time faculty positions in various academic departments throughout the country. It remains the goal of the ophthalmic training program to provide a broad, stable foundation for residents, whether bound for full-time academic pursuits, or general private practice.

We accept applications only through the Central Application Service (CAS) which is run by the Ophthalmology Matching Program (OMP). The deadline for residency application is October 1.  We will contact applicants to interview by letter or phone call in late October and early November. Due to the large number of applicants to our program, we will only mail letters of invitation.

A note from the residents

For further information, please contact:

OMP address is as follows:

Ophthalmology Matching Program
P.O. Box 7584
San Francisco, CA 94120-7584
Phone: (415) 447-0350 ~ ~ ~ Fax: (415) 561-8535
Web site: http://www.sfmatch.org