The UNM Ophthalmology Residency Program is a four-year integrated training program fully accredited by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. It accepts three residents annually through SFMatch (https://www.sfmatch.org/).
We accept applications for medical student away rotations. Applicants should apply through VSLO and will be contacted regarding approval once applications are reviewed. Rotations occur July through October of each year.
The major teaching center for our residency program is the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH), a full-service, public teaching hospital, and the state’s only level 1 trauma center. UNMH includes the state’s only children’s hospital, the NCI-designated UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, a designated stroke center, and a burn unit. As a safety net hospital, UNMH serves the great majority of the uninsured and under-insured persons in the state. The hospital’s emergency room sees over 100,000 visits per year. The UNMH Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion houses New Mexico’s only Children’s Hospital and provides care for nearly 60,000 children annually.
The UNM Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has two eye clinics, 1.5 miles apart. Currently with 8 full-time clinical faculty, 29 voluntary clinical faculty, four optometrists, and 7 vision research scientists, our clinics service approximately 15,000 outpatients annually, with approximately 6,000 surgical procedures performed per year across all subspecialties. One of our clinics was recently expanded, with new academic space for our residents, and three new operating rooms dedicated for ambulatory eye surgery. Ophthalmology residents will also see vitreoretinal and pediatric patients at Retinal Consultants of New Mexico and the Family Eye Center, respectively, both a short drive from UNMH. The nearby Albuquerque Veteran’s Administration Medical Center provides an additional site for resident rotations. An additional 4,500 patients are seen annually in the VA Eye Clinic. Together, these clinical centers provide the full spectrum of ophthalmic disorders and pathology in patients of all ages.
Apply for the UNM Ophthamology Residency Program through SF Match
The program allows for graduated levels of patient care responsibility. Call responsibilities are present throughout the training period. The residency program strictly adheres to the ACGME-mandated 80-hours maximum work week rule, and all residents will be expected to comply with this mandate.
Our program provides financial support for ophthalmic diagnostic lenses, and online access to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) and the AAO One Network. The University of New Mexico School of Medicine Library also offers an extensive collection of ophthalmology journals and allows access to PubMed and other online portals from any computer.
The University of New Mexico, in combination with the Veterans Administration of New Mexico, has been a host to 10 senior ophthalmology residents each year currently from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania and Tufts University in Boston Massachusetts. This collaborative educational experience provides an intensive surgical and clinical experience in a broad range of diseases.
The rotation consolidates a resident’s ability to provide primary ophthalmic care and emphasizes blinding conditions in a population of patients distinctly different from those encountered in their home programs. These diseases include ocular trauma, severe diabetic eye disease, advanced cataracts, pterygium, and subacute glaucomas. The rotation involves a significant amount of indigent care. In addition, Hispanic, Native American, and rural patients provide a unique learning opportunity, exposing residents to distinctive cultures and medical concerns.
Residents at UNM can expect to perform high volume cataract surgery, joining a variety of subspecialty and comprehensive cataract surgeons several days each week in the operating room. This is unique in resident training and in contrast to many residency programs in the US where residents are in the OR only once per week during a surgical rotation.
This high volume surgery greatly impacts the speed of the learning curve for new cataract surgeons. And this surgical experience when combined with the clinical experience of managing patients in New Mexico's only Level 1 trauma center offers senior residents a unique experience not unlike a fellowship. Residents at UNM hit the ground running and return to their home programs with new confidence, new skills, new friends/colleagues, and many southwestern memories.
Local Residency Program Director
Kevin Sitko, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Ophthalmology
University of New Mexico