Ophthalmology in Taiwan

We herein report the current status of ophthalmology in Taiwan. There are 1667 ophthalmologists in Taiwan (up to the year 2011), with an average of 7.22 eye specialists/100,000 people. The ophthalmology residency program is a 4-year course in Taiwan, and around 40–44 new residents pass out each year. The Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan and many other professional ophthalmological organizations, and 30 teaching hospitals provide continuing education for practicing ophthalmologists and hospital staff. From 2002 to 2010, the average yearly cataract surgery rate in Taiwan was 5350/million people. Taiwan has held many international congresses. The major areas of biomedical research in ophthalmology in Taiwan are ophthalmic epidemiology, glaucoma, vitreoretinal diseases, cornea, and stem cells. From 1990 to 2010, Taiwan ophthalmologists have published 15 monographs, 15 textbooks, and 2184 scientific articles. The future objectives of Taiwanese ophthalmologists are to promote preventive ophthalmology, to expand efforts in basic research, to establish a national eye-diseases registry, and to support the Taiwan Journal of Ophthalmology in becoming a Science Citation Index journal.