Eyeworld

and grow them further; for others it may inspire them to learn more and develop the field further. If you don't have time to read a myriad of journals, these meetings help to crystallize the mountain of informa- tion to just the pearls. "Meetings will always be rele- vant but only if well planned and with the best speakers present," he said. EW Editors' note: The physicians have no financial interests related to their comments. Contact information Amano: amanoshiro1126@gmail.com Vasavada: icirc@abhayvasavada.com Yeo: ian.yeo.y.s@snec.com.sg other medium than meetings," he said. "Plus, these provide a forum for even beginners and residents to present their scientific papers, research, and videos. I still believe that scientific meetings are very relevant even in today's time. How- ever, I also feel that often there are far too many meetings happening in the same region in the same time period." In addition, Dr. Yeo thinks scientific meetings provide a critical function, a kind of dynamic IRL peer-review: "Scientific meetings allow discourse of information and to query the information found throughout the various media," he said. "It allows like-minded indi- viduals to share their knowledge What roles do textbooks now play? T he learning experience for today's students is certainly different from that of students as recently as 20 years ago, only a few years into the Internet Age, when the average household had to make do with a dial-up connection to access the Internet—if it could access the Internet at all. "We are living in the digital age. Textbooks are often obsolete the moment they come to print and physical libraries will soon lose their relevance in medical education," Dr. Yeo said. "The value of digital media is the ability for the information to be constantly updated and remain relevant. There lies the challenge for medical students, residents, and practicing faculty alike—how do I keep up? For the students who need to pass exams, unless we ask only very basic questions, there is really no end to the amount of information they may need to know." "Looking at the recent trends, medical education is becoming more and more dynamic than textbook-based," Dr. Vasavada said. "Having said that, there is still a role for textbooks as they are a source of comprehensive and concise knowledge compiled from several sources, including recent publications. Often, in the open access literature, the young resident or medical student may get lost trying to filter the relevant information. It is here that the textbooks will provide up-to-date and comprehensive information on the subject." Our very concept of "textbook" has been rendered malleable by new media. "The standard for medical students learning is still reading textbooks," Dr. Amano said. "But these days, textbooks themselves have changed. They are often sold with DVDs with various figures and videos, and sometimes interactive discussions with authors are available. Moreover, low price e-textbooks are increasing. Thus, medical education is becoming more and more digital media based." EW

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