Eyeworld

by Maxine Lipner, Ophthalmology Business Contributing Writer Authoring your own ophthalmic book continued on page 24 December 2017 • Ophthalmology Business 23 Y ou've carved out a niche for yourself in ophthalmology and now you're interested in writing a book. It may not be something you have any experience with, and you may have trepidations about also handling your busy practice. One ophthal- mologist, Constance Okeke, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Virginia Eye Consultants, Norfolk, Virginia, said that this can be done in conjunction with handling practice demands and more. Dr. Okeke speaks from experience as the author of The Building Blocks of Trabectome Surgery, Volume 1: Patient Selection. Dr. Okeke's book grew out of an article she had written for a journal. "I decided I could take this article and make it into something more detailed that could be a primer for helping physicians learn how to se- lect patients for the Trabectome [Neo- Medix, Tustin, California] so that they could have better outcomes," she said. "I had research on the topic of success with the Trabectome, so I thought I had a good basis to break down information that could be eas- ily absorbed by other physicians who were new to the procedure." What began as an idea for a 30- to 40-page booklet evolved into something more. Before Dr. Okeke knew it, she had a 300-page document. This is something others can do as well if they have the right topic. "I think it's important to have a passion about the topic if you're going to write about it because writing a book is a labor of love," she said, adding that there are going to be frustra- tions, and it's going to take willpower to get from start to finish. Starting out The topic should be relevant, Dr. Okeke noted. "You want [to write] something that people will utilize that will be helpful and practical," she said. The concept of how to select patients for microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) was some- thing that physicians were asking her Dr. Okeke's book cover features an actual Trabectome patient who had an excellent outcome. The book is avail- able at www.kuglerpublications.com. Source: Constance Okeke, MD about a lot, so she knew that people wanted to know more about this. She broadened the book's appeal by encompassing the wider world of MIGS instead of focusing solely on the Trabectome. "As I was working on it and doing other MIGS proce- dures, I realized that with a lot of MIGS procedures there are concepts that are general for all MIGS," she said, adding that she went into how to select patients and talk to them about a MIGS procedure, as well as how to perform shared techniques. Dr. Okeke advised practitioners who have an idea for a book to begin with an outline. "You need to know what the general concepts are and what it is that you want to talk about," she said. From there, you can elaborate, but you are not tied to following this in a particu- lar order. "I didn't necessarily write from the beginning to the end," Dr. Okeke said. "I chose chapters that I thought would be more difficult to write so that I could get them out of the way." For example, a chapter on gonioscopy was one that she knew was much more detailed and would require a lot of time, so she did this early on. She also recommends having a timeline to serve as a progress guide- post. Dr. Okeke set one for about a 6-month window, although she admitted she had to be flexible. "But it is good to have a timeline because it motivates you to adhere to it," she said. For most practitioners, writing a book will be a balancing act with other responsibilities. "I ended up

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