Duke University Hospital

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

Duke University Medical Center
Duke Eye Center, DUMC 3802
Erwin Road
Durham, North Carolina 27710

http://www.dukeeye.org

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[MAYOphtho]

Duke is, in my opinion, a (or THE) premier Ophtho program in the country. The eye center is a free standing building with TONS of surgical volume. Additionally, the surgical volume is aided by the VA clinic in Asheville in which you do 3 or 4 months at some point in the residency (I cant remember offhand). The research is probably some of the highest caliber in the country. People that graduate here do very well obtaining (a) great private practice jobs (b) outstanding fellowships of their choice and (c) outstanding academic jobs as well. The faculty is HUGE and well known. The call schedule is a bit front loaded, but that makes it very nice the further along you are. It sounded to me like there was primary call as a PGY2, backup call as a PGY3 and little (if any) call as a PGY4.

Durham is not the prettiest city on earth, but the cost of living is decent and the triangle offers a lot. I would definately apply here again.

 

[JimBeezie]

I interviewed at Duke in 2006 and I have to echo the great comments already posted here.

Pros: High surgical experience (I heard around 200 cataracts) with at VA's. Residents get lots of interaction with fellows (who are excellent) while on call. There is no call during 3rd year, as 1st years are primary call with 2nd years and fellows for back-up. Durham has a low cost of living and seemed like a nice place to have a family. The faculty facilities were very nice. Chair and PD seemed to deeply care about resident education. Duke is a famous/well respected name in eyes with tons of faculty in every sub-specialty. Lots of cutting-edge research going on and you get something like 10 weeks during your 3rd year with which you can participate in it.

Cons: Just biggest con this program had was Durham. It is not a big city by any measure. Also, I felt as though the surgical experience was awesome, there wasn't too much autonomy to be had outside of the VAs. One of the VAs was in Asheville, NC which is apparently very beautiful but approx 3 hours away. You're up there for some months during 2nd and 3rd year.

 

[iDoc23]

Any recent applicants and/or residents mind providing an update on Duke's program?

 

[ophtho202020]

I interviewed here. I also commend them for having one of the easiest-to-digest residency websites on the trail.

To summarize: It is a great program with a new main building built in 2015. The residents are highly skilled in comprehensive training, and then go on to match at top fellowships anywhere. For a top 10 program, they do lots of of surgery. They perform about 250 cataracts and do well above the requirements for subspecialty surgeries. About 1/3rd of their time is at the VA. They spend 2 months in Asheville VA in 2nd and 3rd year, which is considered a heavily favorited rotation. They pointed out that Asheville was the #1 US travel spot in 2017 on lonelyplanet. Duke has some of the #1 surgical fellowships in the country like Glaucoma and Retina, and the rest of their fellowships are also considered top-tier, so the name is certainly there. They have also been able to consistently recruit big wigs from other institutions like Dr. Perez (Cornea) from Bascom and Dr. Medeiros (glaucoma) from UCSD in the past year. They also have lots of sub-sub specialties like onc, uveitis, pediatric retina, ped glaucoma, pediatric neuro-ophth, and retina genetics. They also mentioned hidden gems like at the VA resident clinic, retired Dr. Bruce Shields (author of the Textbook of Glaucoma, and former chairman at Yale) will come to do teaching and supervise once a week.

One of the nice things they mentioned that I didn't see anywhere else is that the third years do not have any call, which meant that they don't have to bother with scheduling issues when there were fellowship interviews or busy OR days. First years take primary home call, and second years take back up home call. Durham is a college town with the undergrad having large but good presence. It has a foodie and tech industry scene going on for it now. International airport is about 25 minutes away.