In Patient Safety Alert 6, The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) stated that ‘‘across the NHS, there is no single standard method for marking a surgical site, which increases the likelihood of confusion and error. Despite high professional standards and excellent best practice at a local level, safety can be improved by using a consistent national standard for preoperative marking and a ver...

s of clinical research papers published in major ophthalmology journals are rigorously structured summaries of the important issues one needs to consider in planning and reporting a research project. In essence, the reader needs to know, and the abstract needs to tell them, what was done, why it was done, and what the clinical implications of the findings might be. The rest is “commentary”. NOT...

team approach, which involves primary care physicians, endocrinologists, ophthalmologists, nurses, optometrists, nutritionists, and dietitians, is of primary importance for identifying and treating diabetic retinopathy, the retinal complication of diabetes mellitus. In concert with the patient and family, a team’s common goals are blood glucose control, timely screening examinations, and early ...

Dear Editor: We read with interest the article “Approach of Turkish ophthalmologists to micronutrition in age-related macular degeneration” by Şahın et al. They aimed to evaluate the knowledge and behavior of ophthalmologists in Turkey with regard to micronutrition support in patients with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). We congratulate the authors on their well-designed study. We woul...

UNLABELLED The field of ophthalmology has a number of unique features compared with other medical and surgical specialties regarding clinical workflow and data management. This has important implications for the design of electronic health record (EHR) systems that can be used intuitively and efficiently by ophthalmologists and that can promote improved quality of care. Ophthalmologists often l...

We introduce here a new technique for segmenting optic cup using two-dimensional fundus images. Cup segmentation is the most challenging part of image processing of the optic nerve head due to the complexity of its structure. Using the blood vessels to segment the cup is important. Here, we report on blood vessel extraction using first a top-hat transform and Otsu's segmentation function to det...

PURPOSE To map the colour contrast sensitivity (CCS) and possible elevations of colour contrast thresholds in Swedish ophthalmologists operating argon lasers. MATERIAL AND METHODS CCS was measured by a computer and colour monitor system developed by Arden and co-workers. CCS of 58 Swedish ophthalmologists, all users of argon laser, was compared to 26 age-matched controls. The ophthalmologists...

PURPOSE Use adjudication to quantify errors in diabetic retinopathy (DR) grading based on individual graders and majority decision, and to train an improved automated algorithm for DR grading. DESIGN Retrospective analysis. PARTICIPANTS Retinal fundus images from DR screening programs. METHODS Images were each graded by the algorithm, U.S. board-certified ophthalmologists, and retinal spe...

PURPOSE To verify the perception of Brazilian ophthalmologists regarding the role played by Genetics in their routine medical activity and their conduct when dealing with patients, with hereditary diseases who need genetic counseling. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted by means of invitations to participate in an interview on this subject. The questionnaires were sent to 200 ophth...

BACKGROUND Patients often pay for specialty intraocular lenses (IOLs) for cataract surgery covered by universal insurance. This practice creates the potential for inequitable pricing where the medical service provider is also the retailer. We measured the variation in prices between cataract surgeons for the same IOL and associated testing. METHODS We telephoned every cataract surgeon in Onta...