Sources of information for the 21st century health care provider cover a wide-range of media and have wildly various focuses. The electronic age has allowed text and periodical sources to move from print-only format to hard media such as DVD to internet-based resources. The question is: do you spend more time reading these important resources now that they are electronically available than you did when they were only available in print?
The days of stacked optometry journals on an OD’s desk are not gone. The more common publications - AOA News, Review of Optometry, Optometric Management, and Primary Care Optometry News - continue to print periodic versions in addition to their online offerings. Thousands of optometrists would admit, if pressed, that they have that dreaded pile of months-old journals sitting, waiting, for their attention.
So too do optometrists pile up the peer-reviewed publications that could make their professional judgments more evidence based. The journals of the American Optometric Association and the American Academy of Optometry continue to publish the work of those in our profession that remain committed to the sciences of vision care and eye health. There is no research project that proves that ODs do not delve into their scientific journals, but there are plenty of anecdotal stories to support the notion that far too many doctors avoid these publications.
The transition to electronic versions of optometry journals has likely been embraced as much as the same transition for traditional press offerings. Online newspapers are certainly read by many but have not eliminated newspapers - reading on the computer is simply not the same as reading printed material both for content and for visual demand. There is very little evidence that the printed medium is headed toward extinction as old habits are hard to break.
I have made the transition to reading most of my news online, and I have tried to read more journal offerings through their computerized versions. But I find the process of registering for all of the publications to be a bit of a hassle, and I think that slows adoption even though it’s not the intended effect. I bought a subscription to the Duane’s Clinical Ophthalmology resource a couple years ago that came in a case that looked just like a DVD case, but the great news is that the case only included a code to their web-based resource that is always up to date and accessible from any exam room at any time. I love that.
I can envision a paperless world, free of all of the piles of professional journals. Can you?
