Surgical Success: Maximizing Outcomes through Evidence-Based Medicine

New Orleans-The tenets of evidence-based medicine, rather than anecdotal evidence, can be used to improve cataract and refractive surgery outcomes, concluded panelists at a breakfast CME symposium on Sunday. Moderator Michael Raizman, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, and the faculty discussed application of evidence-based medicine to the evaluation and biocompatibility of current fluoroquinolones and maximizing the outcomes of cataract surgery and refractive surgery.

According to a statement from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, evidence-based medicine is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine integrates individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.

Faculty included Eduardo Alfonso, MD, University of Miami School of Medicine; Deepinder K. Dhaliwal, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Edward J. Holland, MD, University of Cincinnati School of Medicine; and Samuel Masket, MD, UCLA Center for Health Sciences, Los Angeles.

The meeting, held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, was jointly sponsored by Ophthalmology Times and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Alcon Laboratories Inc.