Janice Gault presents the fifth edition of the critically acclaimed Ophthalmology Secrets. If you are someone like me, who is sceptical and needs persuaded to add another textbook to their collection, let me be the first to convince you the value of this book is worth it. In summary, this book will leverage your time and reward you with a high yield of clinical knowledge and clinical reasoning skills.
The design of this book is divided into 52 short chapters, and it is impressive that the author has managed to distil their tacit knowledge into an easily portable A5 book. My personal favourite aspect of the book is the format and style. The book is structured around the proven Secrets Series format, whereby the author asks a meaningful and relevant clinical question, and the succinct answers make up the content of the book. This is a great approach for knowledge retention as the authors organise the superb content by pairing it with a thought-provoking question which is excellent for deeper engagement. Throughout the book, the author summarises important information into “Key Points” boxes and tables to compartmentalise information into bite-size chunks.
Another unique selling point behind this book is how it delivers the clinical knowledge into a practical step-by-step process for true practitioners. Many textbooks will attempt to teach you overarching principles behind management, but I was awestruck by the detail in ‘Treatment of Angle -Closure Glaucoma’ for two reasons. Firstly, it included timeframes which is often neglected and secondly, it included “If then” statements to include caveats to clinical management when patients don’t respond exactly to the classic textbook plan. The expert contributors have provided excellent, high-quality content, but given the USA-centric nature of the book, a healthy amount of caution should be applied to the applicability and relevance to UK patients. As always, it is recommended to follow local and national guidelines.
The enhanced ebook provides another dimension for “learning-on-the-go”. A simple “control + F” function makes the content accessible at your fingertips. This book can serve as an excellent reference point for clinical environments.
The book is a treasure trove for any medical student or doctor working in ophthalmology who wants to excel in clinical knowledge, clinical reasoning, and clinical practice.
