The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
Department of Ophthalmology
The Department of Ophthalmology

Residency Program

 


Research

 

There are many opportunities for research for the residents in this program.  There are numerous basic science researchers working in various areas of vision research who would be happy to provide ideas and guidance to a resident wishing to pursue research endeavors.  Additionally, these researchers have state of the art equipment, modern laboratory techniques, and many years of cumulative experience to share with the interested resident.  There are also several faculty members with expertise in study design and statistics.

 

Every year, each resident is required to present an original paper at the department’s Annual Meeting.  Most of these presentations involve design of a study, research of current and historical literature, data collection, organization and development of conclusions or recommendations.  The clinical faculty as well as other faculty are most helpful to the resident in these undertakings.

 

Thus, research as a scholarly activity is an important part of this curriculum.  The RRP serves to guide the resident in the production of high-quality papers to be delivered each year at the Annual Department Meeting.

 

The objectives of the RRP are to:  increase the number of evidence-based articles generated by clinical faculty and provide research experience to residents, to improve the residents’ knowledge of scientific method and literature review, and to provide expert guidance in research endeavors.

 

There is less emphasis on case reports or case series, and more emphasis on prospective or quality retrospective papers.  Faculty act as mentors to individual or small groups of residents and help facilitate the final product.  Participants may communicate using a video conferencing program, permitting remote critiques, statistics, graphics and collaborative manuscript writing.  Projects may extend beyond one year and research topics could come from either the clinical or basic science faculty.  Dr. Thomas C. Prager and Dr. Alice Chuang are the project managers, providing quality control to ensure good experimental design, statistics, graphics and a cogent write-up.  Additional scientific expertise can be drawn from the UT School of Public Health as well as from other departments within and outside the UT system.

 

Following an in-depth presentation at the Annual Meeting, most manuscripts will be submitted for publication.