Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The American Academy of Ophthalmology is committed to nurturing a diverse ophthalmologist community that meets the complex eye care needs of a diverse patient population and our communities.

Diversity refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and views that define our unique differences along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geographic region, and more.

In terms of diversity, we recognize the national ophthalmological community does not adequately represent the patients we serve, and while in recent years we have initiated a number of programs to combat this inequity, much remains unfulfilled.

Academy Diversity Policy

DEI in Ophthalmology: Disparities in Visual Health and Eye Care

In September 2022, the Academy’s Task Force on Disparities in Visual Health and Eye Care released a collection of seminal articles to provide a framework for the field of ophthalmology to address key factors that underlie inequities in eye care and disparities in vision health.

LGBTQ+ and the Academy

The Academy is committed to advancing health equity for LGBTQ+ persons and equality for LGBTQ+ professionals. We offer a number of initiatives in this area, including an online community for networking among LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ ally Academy members.

What the Academy Is Doing

Currently, Academy task forces are examining our own organization through this lens and seeking to ensure that we are inclusive, welcoming, diverse, and engaged in providing meaningful resources for the public and for our members to fulfill this objective.

One of these task forces is focused on health equity in eye care. Health equity is a complex subject involving social determinants of health and medical care, access to care, cost of care, multifactorial risk factors to disease, and outcomes of care.

The Academy understands that combating inequities involves some issues (economic, geographic, social, etc.) that are outside of our organizational scope; however, we can impact many of them. This will involve research, population data analytics, promoting change in the makeup of the ophthalmologic workforce, promoting optimal structures and processes of care delivery, effective advocacy, amended clinical guidelines, and more effective public and professional education (among other remedies).

We recognize that many of our membership are looking to the Academy to help them understand these complicated and intertwining issues and to provide resources for them in their practices and in their communities.

Academy Governance

The Academy Task Force on Organizational Diversity and Inclusion is charged to assess the organization's diversity in its physician leadership, committees, presenters on the podium at Academy events, and recognition programs. Its report to the Academy Board of Trustees will recommend ways in which diversity and inclusion can be enhanced over time.

Health Equity

The Academy Task Force on Disparities in Eye Care is charged with providing an understanding of current knowledge about visual health and disparities, including gaps in data. It will then develop a prioritized framework by which the Academy can address gaps and reduce identified disparities. With board guidance, it will perform pilot work to reduce disparities in areas within the Academy mission that are rated highest priority in the framework.

Academy Leadership Training

The Board of Trustees approved a recommendation by the Academy Task Force on Organizational Diversity and Inclusion to require Academy leaders to complete a free, one-hour course on unconscious bias in medicine, offered by Stanford University School of Medicine. Secretaries and mem­bers of the board took the training in 2022, and committee chairs and mentors for the Minority Oph­thalmology Mentoring program will complete it in 2023.

Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring Program

The Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring program is a partnership between the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology.

The purpose of the program is to increase diversity in ophthalmology by helping underrepresented in medicine students become competitive ophthalmology residency applicants. Students receive one-on-one mentorship, valuable guidance in medical career planning, networking opportunities and access to a variety of educational resources.

Diversity and Inclusion Education for Residents

This page is the result of an effort to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion toolkit for ophthalmology residents and faculty to take a critical look at the structures and processes at play that lead to underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic, and Native American ophthalmologists and the effect that a lack of diversity has in healthcare outcomes for our patients.