Medical and Surgical Retina Advanced Specialty Training

Please note: The 2022-2024 program is in progress. All applications are submitted centrally to the SF Match site. Please refer to the SFMatch website to register for the match and read about the process for applying to Ophthalmology Fellowship training. Once registered you can view our program listing on the SFMatch directory Web site for all required documents.

Pre-requisites for international medical graduates:

  1. Completion of an Ophthalmology Residency
  2. Successful completion of the ECFMG examinations and award of the certificate
  3. USMLE step 3
  4. Must be eligible for J-1 ECFMG visa sponsorship for entire two-year period of fellowship

Introduction

This outline is intended to provide an overview of the Retina Advanced Specialty Training (“Fellowship”) Program at the Wilmer Eye Institute (Department of Ophthalmology) of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Wilmer Retina Division is one of the largest in the country, with 15 full-time faculty providing retina care within an eye department of approximately 80 full-time faculty ophthalmologists who in turn are part of a department faculty of approximately 160.

Purpose of Training Program

The purpose of the training program is to provide the best clinical training in the world regarding the management of retinal diseases. As such, the training program physicians are involved in all aspects of the clinical care of patients with retinal diseases. Our goal is to train competent, confident, sophisticated retina specialists, with both medical and surgical expertise.

At the end of the two years, we expect that each graduate will achieve the following goals:

  1. master medical retina at a level where he or she could direct any fluorescein conference in the country and provide the most up-to-date care of medical retinal diseases
  2. become proficient in retina surgery so that the training program physician can fully evaluate, diagnose, and manage surgical challenges ranging from the most straight-forward to the most complex.

Although there is no “reserved” time for research, almost all previous training program physicians have conducted research projects resulting in publications and presentations. The Wilmer Retina Advanced Specialty Training ("Fellowship") Program is AUPO FCC compliant.

Training Program Dates

Beginning in 2023, the training program will begin on July 8, with a duration of two (2) years.

More About the Program

The Wilmer Family

The Retina Division and the entire Wilmer Eye Institute take pride in providing a congenial and supportive environment in which to work. Training program physicians are considered a key part of the “Wilmer Family” and enjoy numerous social gatherings and events at faculty members’ homes. The faculty aim to make the training experience both educational and fun!

Conclusion

We would like the training program to be the best experience it can be; after all, we are going to be your colleagues throughout our professional careers. As such, we constantly strive to improve each aspect of the program. Therefore, the training program of two years ago is similar, but slightly different, from the way it is now, and is likely to be different in the future. For example, there is more surgical experience in the first year of the program and overall than was available a few years ago.

The training program physicians from the 1970's took leadership positions in academic and private practices including for example: Howard Schatz, San Francisco; Stuart Fine, Philadelphia; David Orth, Chicago; Alexander (“Sandy”) Brucker, Philadelphia; and Lawrence Singerman, Cleveland. The training program physicians from the 1980's also took leadership positions in academic and private practice, including Neil Bressler, Susan Bressler, Julia Haller, and Marco Zarbin. The training program physicians from the 1990's and 2000’s include Mark Humuyan, Jennifer Lim (UIC), Culver Boldt (Iowa), Sharon Fekrat (Duke), Anat Loewenstein (chair of the largest eye department in Tel Aviv), and Sharon Solomon (Wilmer). More recent graduates have continued this trend and include Akrit Sodhi (Wilmer), Benjamin Kim (UPenn), Ala Moshiri (UC Davis), Adam Wenick (Wilmer), Ian Han (Iowa), Alice Zhang (UNC), Roomasa Channa (UWisconsin), Yannis Paulis (UMichigan), and Alvin Liu (Wilmer).

Contact us

Fellowship Coordinator: Pat Hines
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (410) 502-1873 
Fax: (410) 955-2924