Wilmer Eye Institute / Johns Hopkins University

mjl34 said:

Wilmer - Baltimore didn't impress me, but it's cheap to live there; adequate surgical volume (resident dependent, but can get 150 cataracts if you want) and great autonomy (only true resident-run clinic I found); this program is known as a factory for future department chairs and other leaders of the field; overall - you work hard, but if you're bound for fellowship/academics - it's hard to beat this program.

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• Class Size: Wilmer residents used to cover GBMC (a community hospital in Baltimore) and had various years of 7-8 residents. This rotation was known to be low volume so the program felt that residents would get better surgical experience if the class size was decreased. So currently we have 5 residents in a class (staring with the class of 2016) and only cover Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview. As an FYI, Wilmer had 5 residents was prior to 2000.
• Surgical Numbers: With decrease in class from 7-8 to 5 residents we are projected to have a significant bump in cataract numbers. We will spend more time on the Wilmer resident, uveitis and Bayview rotations. We expect average cataract numbers to be ~170 for classes with 5 residents compared to ~150 in the years prior. Also,the cataracts that we do as Wilmer residents are not in general uncomplicated 20/30 phacos. Many of our patients have advanced cataracts or co-morbidites that make the surgeries more difficult than bread and butter cataracts seen at some other programs. Also, we are well above national averages in non-cataract procedures: strabismus, glaucoma, viteroretinal etc... Again, as in cataract surgery, the variety of cases and rare/advanced pathology makes for excellent surgical training during residency. The vast majority of the surgical cases that come to the resident clinic (general eye service) and ED are done by the residents as primary surgeon. We also will work with attending clinic patients as primary surgeons.
• Didactics: We have protected didactic time on Thursdays from 8:30-12:00 noon after grand rounds. We have plenty of optional weekend clinical/surgical and research conferences we can attend. I have yet to hear of a policy where our vacation will be taken away if we miss didactic. In any case, the didactic are excellent. You're often being lectured to by a leader in the field and have little reason to miss them.