Every English major owns a collection of Norton anthologies and Penguin classics. Every law student owns a copy of Jill Poole's standard textbook on contract law. Every nursing student owns a copy of Grey's Anatomy. Every ophthalmology student and every resident completing an ophthalmology rotation must own Wills Eye Manual; it has no equal, and you cannot find a reliable substitute. Just as naturally, automatically, predictably, and inevitably as internists and primary care physicians invest in high-quality stethoscopes, eye-care professionals invest in the latest, most up-to-date edition of Wills.
Not surprisingly, well-schooled and long-experienced ophthalmologists find Wills Eye Manual more useful as an essential office ornament than a tool in everyday practice-the equivalent of a thesaurus for Herman Melville or a "how-to-draw-a-girl" book for Leonardo DaVinci. They know the manual as if they had written it themselves. The specialists' objections, however, prove the manual's utility for general practitioners. When the specialist complains, "The book has nothing but the fundamentals-basic symptoms, essential treatments, and very simple figures and illustrations," the generalists nod heartily, saying, "Exactly!"
Now in its fifth edition, Wills Eye Manual remains "the gold standard" of eye-care references. Of course, it still details the fundamentals of ophthalmological diagnosis and treatment, but it has a whole new and much-improved look. For the first time, editors and designers have included glossy pages replete with colour photographs; and they have simplified quick look-ups with tabs and headings in colour. The editors--Ehlers, Shah, Fenton, and Hoskins--wisely have kept the manual's efficient, logical outline design; and they skillfully have balanced essential clinical terms with everyday language. In many cases, they add notes and anecdotes from exemplary cases, suggesting examples professionals may follow or warning about common mistakes that complicate patients' disorders or injuries.
The publishers also collaborated with IT professionals at Skyscape, digitizing the fifth edition of Wills Eye Manual, and making it more readily accessible to physicians in emergency rooms and high-volume clinics. The entire fifth edition of the manual, including its supplemental chapters, large appendices, and Pharmacopoeia are available on CD-Rom for Windows operating systems. Skyscape subscribers also may view the manual online. Moreover, Skyscape has released the fifth edition of Wills Eye Manual for handheld computers that use the Palm operating system. Every clinician and front-line caregiver now has Wills Eye Manual within easy reach.
Bianca Worsley is a medical book reviewer. For your own copy of The
Wills Manual please visit
http://willseyemanual.com/
