I. Fernández

Profile of the Spanish ophthalmologist dedicated to retinal pathology. Preliminary results

Purpose: Define the profile of ophthalmologists dedicated to retinal pathologies Methods: After approval of the Spanish Society of Retina and Vitreous(SERV) a data base of professionals dedicated to treat retinal diseases was created from three sources: members of SERV, V-R specialist according to pharmaceutics companies and suggested by well known V-R specialists. A confidential questionnaire was sent. We used Chi-squared and Fisher’s Exact test for qualitative variables and non-parametric Kruskall Wallis test for quantitative variables Results: 490 possible V-R specialist were identified, obtaining 248 answers. The answers belonged to teaching hospitals 61%, non-teaching hospitals 22%, teaching private institute 5.4%, non-teaching private institute 11%. The mean population covered by public centres was 230.000 habitants, with a mean of 14.5 ophthalmologists and a median of 4 V-R specialists per centre. 82% of V-R specialist finished their training after 1980. 93.5% received V-R training: residency (81%), medical retina master(13.8%), surgical retina master(11.6%) and from expert colleagues(63.3%). The preferential clinical practise was: medical retina 23%, surgical retina 12%, both 65%. 93% attend V-R special consultation every week. 22% practice retinal surgeries, 14% cataract surgeries and 62% both. 79% practice vitrectomies(80/year), 84% intravitreal injections(2/week), 45% photodynamic therapy PTD(2.5/week) and 88% prescribe PDT(1/week). 90% is member of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology Conclusions: We approximately know the number of ophthalmologists dedicated to retinal pathologies, their specialist training and their clinical activity