Impact of a Dedicated Research Rotation during Ophthalmology Residency.

Abstract

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that ophthalmology residents participate in scholarly activity during residency. However, residents lack protected time for research. To determine the impact of a dedicated research rotation on scholarly productivity and research experience during residency. This cohort study compared two groups of ophthalmology residents. Residents who graduated between 2004-2009 did not have dedicated research time and served as control residents (CR) while residents who graduated between 2010-2015 had a dedicated research rotation and served as the intervention group (research residents, RR). Primary outcomes included publications and presentations recorded over a four-year period, spanning the three years of residency and first year after graduation. These were analyzed by linear regression and t-tests. Residents also took surveys regarding research experience and chi squared tests and logistic regression were used to compare these results. The RR had 0.97 more publications and 1.3 more presentations compared to the CR after adjusting for PhD status, pre-residency publications and presentations, age at graduation, gender and race (p=0.09 and p=0.02, respectively). RR had higher odds of reporting adequate time to complete research (OR=13.11, 95% CI 3.58-48.03, p < 0.001) and satisfaction with their research experience (OR=6.96, 95% CI=2.104-23.053, p=0.002). Residents with a research rotation had more time to complete research, were more satisfied with their research experience, and generated more publications and presentations compared to residents without the research rotation. A research rotation can help meet ACGME requirements and help residents achieve greater scholarly activity.