Optometrists use many types of evidence to answer patients' questions. You draw upon knowledge learned in your OD program; examine the patient's history, symptoms, and signs; and sometimes refer to medical textbooks.
But what about questions that cannot be answered using those tools? In those cases, we recommend using evidence-based medicine -- using high quality evidence (i.e., scientific studies found in PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library) to answer a patient's question. We've created a tutorial for understanding evidence-based optometry here.
Clinical tools do the work for you, compiling and summarizing current studies on an optometric topic. Our clinical tools include:
- DynaMed Plus
- Risk factors
- Prevalence/incidence
- Etiology and pathogenesis
- Treatment
- Complications
- Prognosis
- Prevention and screening
- Patient information
- STAT!Ref
- Drug information
- Patient Information
- Point-of-care information