Structured curricula and curriculum development in ophthalmology residency.

Overview

There has been a shift in graduate medical education (GME) from the traditional "apprenticeship" model to a more curriculum-based and competency driven model. Reflecting a global trend towards residency education reform, the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) introduced a resident and specialist curriculum and several live educational programs to promote standardization and more effective GME and continuing professional training. Implementation of these educational innovations will require efforts by local educator champions; modification and customization of teaching and assessing tools to the local learning environment; alignment of the implementation blueprint with available resources; and creation of accountability and sustainability mechanisms to insure long-term viability of the educational reforms. An ultimate goal of the ICO curriculum is to allow real world testing and modification so that the ideas generated in one part of the world might be applicable and generalizable in other areas. We aim to describe the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies in the United States (US) and ICO curriculum, as well as to provide a step-by-step plan for implementation of an ophthalmology residency curriculum.