Evidence-guided ophthalmology.

O ne challenge for ophthalmologists entering the 21st century will be to make clinical decisions based on valid information or evidence rather than intuition, hearsay, or peer practice. The practice of ophthalmology has been information based since its inception. However, before the development of modern clinical study design and statistics, ophthalmologists had been applying information from all sources to their practice, without regard to its quality. Subconsciously, many practitioners may give equal weight to the printed word, no matter the source. Because of an information explosion, ophthalmologists must now pick and choose evidence from a mountain of published information. How can this be done efficiently?