I wasn’t sure if reviewing a book whilst on maternity leave with a demanding (but cute) baby was a good idea. However, this textbook was so easy to read I could understand it even when I was mildly sleep deprived.
The way the book is written feels like you’re talking to a professor after clinic; you get a real sense of the authors personalities which is refreshing compared to the sterility of normal textbooks. I enjoyed the fact it was slightly on the informal side, and I was quite frankly delighted coming across phrases like ‘twisty twist’ and ‘jazzy’ whilst reading.
There are 12 chapters in total including two covering service planning and morality and ethics in medical retina. Each chapter starts with Professor Williams, then has a smaller separate section by Dr Dinah (indicated by ‘Christiana says...’). The latter covers studies relevant to the chapter subject and includes studies that are going to come out. There are some nice tables summarising the studies, and I liked the fact that, for example, in the table for RVO studies it says what the implications for clinical practice were.
As the title suggests, the textbook is very, very practical. They explain the best treatments rather than just listing all potential treatments. They also provide multiple schematics/flow charts which you can follow. They explain things simply, including things you might be too embarrassed to ask (e.g. what do people mean when they say ‘tesselated’ fundus). What’s also comforting is they reassure you that most of us don’t need to know the ins and outs of the weird and the wonderful, e.g. knowing every single pattern dystrophy and genetic condition. Prof Williams instead gives a whistle stop tour of the important one’s in chapter nine.
With regards to the digital version of the textbook, when you tap on the blue link for a figure and it skips down a few pages to where the figure is, there is a little arrow to take you back to where you were which is neat. Just be careful about reading tables on your mobile as they get squashed vertically rather than letting you scroll horizontally.
It’s a fantastic book which I very much enjoyed. It’s not one for complete beginners (e.g. you have no idea about the anatomy of the retina yet or you’ve not looked at an OCT before). It’s also not one you would use for exams. However, it’s great for getting a handle on core medical retina topics whether you’re an ophthalmology trainee, general ophthalmologist looking to refresh their medical retina knowledge, or an optometrist. Highly recommend.
