Access to Ophthalmic Specialty Care Increasingly Challenging in Rural Areas
FRIDAY, Jan. 3, 2025 -- Rural areas are increasingly facing ophthalmic subspecialty surgeon shortages, according to a study published online Jan. 2 in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Aishah Ahmed, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues assessed the geographic distribution of the ophthalmic subspecialist surgeon workforce and evaluated factors associated with practicing in rural areas. The analysis included Medicare Fee-for-Service claims for 1.6 million patients (aged 65 years and older) who underwent subspecialized ophthalmic procedures (2012 through 2022) and 13,526 surgeons performing at least one subspecialty procedure from the following subspecialties: cornea, glaucoma, oculoplastic, retina, or strabismus.
The researchers found that 72.6 percent of the surgeons were male and 33.2 percent practiced in the South. Subspecialty classification included 18.5 percent cornea subspecialists, 26.8 percent glaucoma subspecialists, 14.2 percent oculoplastic subspecialists, 30.0 percent retina subspecialists, and 9.0 percent strabismus subspecialists. A higher proportion of patients (17.4 percent) resided in rural areas relative to surgeons (5.6 percent), with differences ranging from 6.2 to 14.8 percent across subspecialties. Practicing in rural areas was less likely among female surgeons (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.63), surgeons in the Northeast (aOR, 0.62), surgeons in the West (aOR, 0.63), and recent graduates compared with those who graduated 11 to 20 years ago (aOR, 1.66), 21 to 30 years ago (aOR, 1.83), or ≥31 years ago (aOR, 1.43).
"These results suggest that the rural U.S. faces increasing ophthalmic subspecialty surgeon shortages," the authors write.
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