Can J Ophthalmol
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Improving quality of care and patient outcomes is a professional duty of all health care workers. Quality improvement is a part of health policy, an accreditation requirement of residency programs, and a recognized sub-specialty in academic medicine. Given the increasing need for ophthalmological services with our aging population, it is critical for ophthalmologists and their staff to develop the necessary skills in quality improvement to ensure access to care that is safe, patient-centered, effective, efficient, equitable, and timely. ⋯ Two quality improvement projects conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology at University of Toronto are used as examples to illustrate these tools. The aim of the first project was to improve visual field test reliability and the aim of the second was to ensure secure email communication between residents and staff in caring for emergency patients. This primer provides the foundations ophthalmologists and their staff can use to support and guide their quality improvement efforts.
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Competency-based medical education (CBME) is an outcomes-based training model that has become the new standard of medical education internationally. Regulatory and accrediting bodies have responded by establishing key competencies that residency programs may use to reshape their curricula. Available literature on the implementation of CBME in ophthalmology residency training programs across North America was examined. ⋯ One ophthalmology program in Canada has undergone early implementation of a novel CBME curriculum. There is still considerable work to be done to successfully implement CBME curricula within ophthalmology residency programs in North America. Collaborative efforts to develop customizable curricula, tackle implementation barriers, and create specific assessment modalities will assist programs in meeting the competency mandates of CBME.
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Twitter is a social media web site created in 2006 that allows users to post Tweets, which are text-based messages containing up to 140 characters. It has grown exponentially in popularity; now more than 340 million Tweets are sent daily, and there are more than 140 million users. Twitter has become an important tool in medicine in a variety of contexts, allowing medical journals to engage their audiences, conference attendees to interact with one another in real time, and physicians to have the opportunity to interact with politicians, organizations, and the media in a manner that can be freely observed. ⋯ This article serves as an introduction to Twitter and surveys the peer-reviewed literature concerning its various uses and original studies. Opportunities for use in ophthalmology are outlined, and a recommended list of ophthalmology feeds on Twitter is presented. Overall, Twitter is an underutilized resource in ophthalmology and has the potential to enhance professional collegiality, advocacy, and scientific research.
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To investigate the possibility that fasting is not required before cataract surgery. ⋯ This study suggests that it is safe to perform cataract surgery under topical or infiltration anaesthesia with intravenous sedation without fasting prior to surgery.
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Most optic neuropathies do not have effective treatments. Examples are ischemic optic neuropathy, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, optic neuritis, and traumatic optic neuropathy. In some cases, the pathophysiology of the optic nerve injury is not fully understood. ⋯ In optic neuropathies, the corresponding neuron is the retinal ganglion cell. These cells are unable to divide, and optic neuropathies irrevocably result in their death; therefore, the primary target of neuroprotection are retinal ganglion cells and their axons. This review emphasizes that most optic neuropathies are axonal and thus good targets for neuroprotection.