Ophthalmology training in Europe

“Although international data on ophthalmologists in training is more difficult to obtain than information about specialists who have finished their residency,” said Dr Thiemo Rudolph MD, FEBO, “I was able to develop a reasonably accurate picture of ophthalmology training across Europe using data gathered by organisations, publications on the topic and email correspondence.”

Speaking at the ESCRS Young Ophthalmologists’ session entitled, “Taking Training into Your Own Hands,” Dr Rudolph discussed what he called the “Epidemiology of Ophthalmologists:” the data on where they train, where they go and how their numbers compare to national populations.

“On average, residents comprise approximately 10-20 per cent of the total ophthalmologist workforce across Europe, although that depends on the absolute numbers of ophthalmologists in each particular country,” he said. The percentage is particularly high in the UK and the Netherlands, which have far fewer ophthalmologists per capita than the European mean of approximately 80 per million.