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Abstract #118717 Published in IGR 24-4
Primary Practice Emphasis Area and Diversity Among Board-Certified Ophthalmologists
Duarte Bojikian K; Mekonnen ZK; Adan NM; Rivera-Morales P; Kombo N; Feng SAmerican Journal of Ophthalmology 2024; 260: 84-90
PURPOSE: To describe the ophthalmology primary practice emphasis area by underrepresented in medicine (URiM) status using the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) Diplomates database. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: The study was based on a retrospective review of the ABO database from 1992 to 2020. The datapoints recorded included age at time of graduation and at time of certification, sex/gender, self-reported race/ethnicity, year of graduation and of certification, region of practice in the United States, and the self-reported primary practice emphasis area within ophthalmology. The URiM cohort included self-identified Black, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander individuals. Statistical analysis was conducted using Pearson χ, Student t, and Fisher exact tests. RESULTS: A total of 575 (10.1%) ophthalmologists self-identified as URiM, vs 5132 (89.9%) as non-URiM. Diplomates who were URiM were more likely to be female and to be older at the time of ABO certification than those who were not URiM (P < .001). Over time, there was a steady decrease in the percentage of diplomates who were URiM (P < .001). There was a statistically significantly higher percentage of URiM ophthalmologists who reported glaucoma as their primary area of emphasis (P = .039) and non-URiM ophthalmologists who reported oncology, pathology, international, or genetics (P = .015), but no significant differences in the remaining subspecialties (P ≥ .123). CONCLUSIONS: There were modest differences in reported ophthalmology primary practice emphasis areas between URiM and non-URiM ABO diplomates. Despite efforts to increase diversity in ophthalmology, the percentage of graduating URiM ABO diplomates has decreased over the past 2 decades.
From the Department of Ophthalmology (K.D.B., Z.K.M., N.M.A., S.F.), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. Electronic address: bkarine@uw.edu.
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