I have been assessing the practice styles of French ophthalmologists for the past 10 years now and have witnessed some interesting trends so far.

For example, the number of female ophthalmologists has been growing (43% of survey respondents); so too is regular Internet usage (88% of respondents), the use of medical software (more than 72% of respondents), and the average age of ophthalmologists (more than 91% of survey respondents were older than 45 years).

Here are the results of the 2006/2007 survey that gauged the opinions and practice styles of 1 093 ophthalmologists in France (4 937 survey forms were originally distributed). Please note that respondents were able to supply multiple answers for several of the survey questions (i.e. those that total >100%).

General practice

Table 1: % French ophthalmologists who gain assistance for certain procedures

Almost all French ophthalmologists recruit another person to perform visual field testing; meanwhile, over 70% prefer to perform angiograms and tonometry themselves (Table 1).

Table 2: % French ophthalmologists who gain assistance from others

More than two-thirds of survey respondents enlisted the help of an orthoptist on a regular basis, while almost 50% enlisted the assistance of their secretary for exams (Table 2).

Table 3: % French ophthalmologists by type of practice (I)

Most French ophthalmologists work in private practice, mainly within a larger practice alongside other private practitioners (Table 3 & 4).

Cataract surgery

Table 4: % French ophthalmologists by type of practice (II)

More than 43% of French cataract surgeons perform more than 300 cataract surgery procedures each year. If we draw comparisons on previous years, there has been a consistent increase in volume of procedures per surgeon (number of cataract surgeons performing >300 procedures per year: 43.4% in 2006; 35.3% in 2003; 25.5% in 1998) (Table 5). Almost all cataract surgery procedures performed are phacoemulsification procedures (98%) and stitches are not used in 73% of surgeries, in comparison to only 34% in 1998.

Table 5: Number of cataract surgeries performed by French cataract surgeons per year

The number of outpatient cataract procedures showed a decrease in 2006, representing 72% of total procedures in 2005 and 66% in 2006. Day surgery grew (8.8% in 2005 to 14.8% in 2006); with the majority of surgeons (81%) discharging their patients on the same day.

Table 6: Number of standard follow-up visits required by French cataract surgeons

With regards to postoperative care, the majority of patients have two to three follow-up appointments, mainly at day one, and between day 20 and day 30 (Table 6 & 7).