Introduction: Ophthalmology residency positions remain competitive. A lack of clarity regarding which residency selection criteria are prioritized by program directors can heighten the stress associated with the match process. While surveys of program directors in several other medical specialties have been conducted to identify the most important residency selection criteria, there is limited data on selection criteria used by ophthalmology residency program directors.

Purpose: This article evaluates the relevance of social media to ophthalmology residency applicants in the setting of virtual interviews, the types of information sought by applicants, and the impact of rebranding of an institutional and departmental social media account. 

Participants: Ophthalmology residency applicants from the 2020 to 2021 cycle.

Purpose: Numerous studies have emphasized the influence of gender-specific mentors in medical students' career decisions, but this has not been explored fully in ophthalmology. Therefore, this study evaluated ophthalmology educators' attitudes toward female mentorship, to better understand how this may relate to medical students' career development and training.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Purpose: To address the problem of teaching noncore specialties, for which there is often limited teaching time and low student engagement, a flipped classroom case learning (FCCL) module was designed and implemented in a compulsory 5-day ophthalmology rotation for undergraduate medical students. The module consisted of a flipped classroom, online gamified clinical cases, and case-based learning.

Purpose: To characterize listenership and perceived educational impact of the ophthalmic podcast “Eyes for Ears”.

Methods: A cross-sectional, internet-distributed, 9-question Qualtrics survey was made available to podcast listeners. Listenership metrics were analyzed from the podcast host platform.

Importance

Background

Purpose

Graduate medical education (GME) in ophthalmology has faced and overcome many challenges over the past years, and 2020 has been a game-changer. Although the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus pandemic disrupted medical education globally, ophthalmic educators rapidly transformed their curricula to novel and effective virtual learning formats.

How to introduce medical students to the skills and attitudes necessary to deal with happenstance is the central theme of this article. Planned Happenstance Learning Theory is an important principle in professional development in medical education.