|Articles|September 15, 2016

EyeGuru.org seeks to deliver exactly what residents need

EyeGuru.org is an educational website designed by ophthalmology residents for ophthalmology residents. The website states upfront, “You get no more and no less information than exactly what's needed.”

EyeGuru.org is an educational website designed by ophthalmology residents for ophthalmology residents. It offers just the right amount of information, according to its founder, David Xu, MD, ophthalmology resident at University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues, Shawn Lin, MD, also of UCLA, and Ben Lin, MD, a UCLA medical student, all who founded the site earlier this year. The website states upfront, “You get no more and no less information than exactly what's needed.”

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“With the help of some colleagues in residency, the reason EyeGuru.org got started was to find a new way for ophthalmology residents to access and know how to use the latest generation of tools that have been recently developed,” Dr. Xu said. “We want to bring the power of the Internet and a new generation of educational tools to them.”

EyeGuru.org was created by residents who realized the need for an efficient learning tool during the busy training years. Article content on the site is designed for “rapid learning” opportunities for residents and is tailored to the knowledge residents already have, according to the website.

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“We did this because ophthalmology is so highly specialized. Residents are faced with a challenge,” Dr. Xu continued. “They are needing to tackle clinical, surgical, and basic science material with steep learning curves.”

On the site, students who are new to residency can expect to discover what Dr. Xu calls the “highest yield information” needed to begin evaluating patients and running a clinic. Such information might include basic tips (Example: how to use an indirect ophthalmoscope) to advanced material, including using ophthalmic ultrasound.

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The site features what is called an EyeGuru Deck, or an ability to acquire knowledge with the help of spaced repetition flash cards.

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