Optometric Education

ASCOTECH

Volume 26, Number 2
Spring 2001

Locating Quality Sites on the Internet

William M. Dell, O.D., M.P.H.

There is currently no shortage of online information of interest to optometric educators. Hundreds of web sites showcase volumes of lecture notes, multimedia atlases, online texts and pre-clinical and clinical information, and new sites become available every day. This results in two essential problems for optometric educators -- finding appropriate and useful web sites for their particular area of interest; and keeping current as new we sites of superior quality appear.

Given the extraordinary amount of information readily available on the World Wide Web, it is important to be able to critically evaluate the accuracy and reliability of this information. Our responsibility as educators involves not only performing that task ourselves, but also ensuring that our students possess that same capability in preparation for a lifetime of independent, self-directed learning. My last column presented the concepts of evidence-based medicine and offered a number of web sites related to that subject. The practice of evidence-based medicine (optometry) addresses the conviction that students and practitioners be able to evaluate the information before them in a consistent and sophisticated manner.

Mega Sites

One of the best ways to effectively find large numbers of web sites in almost any given area of basic biomedical science or for any clinical condition is to visit one of the well-known "mega sites."

Martindale's Health Science Guide

Martindale's Health Science Guide (http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/~martindale/HSGuide.html) was created by James Martindale, a consultant to the University of California at Irvine's College of Medicine, in 1994. It is maintained on a server in the university's science library. As of November 2000, Martindale's Health Science Guide contained over 61,400 teaching files; 129,800 medical cases; 1,150 courses; 1,575 tutorials, 4100 databases and over 10,700 movies.

The site is divided into two major sections, The Virtual Medical Center and The Reference Desk. The Virtual Medical Center includes the following sub-centers: Anatomy and Histology; Anesthesiology and Surgery; Brain and Neuro; Cardiology and Pulmonary; Clinical-Primary Care; Medical Imaging; OB/GYN and Pediatrics; Ophthalmology and ENT; Pathology and Virology; Radiology; Administration; Bioscience; Chemistry; Dental; Medical Calculators; Medical Law; Nursing; Nutrition; Pharmacy; Public Health; and Veterinary.

The Reference Desk contains volumes of information that would appeal to any number of needs or interests. A sampling includes a Language Center; Computers and Communications; an Astronomy/Space Center; a Fashion Center; and a Travel and Shipping Center.

Mr. Martindale says he works on the site an average of nine hours a day, five or six days per week, adding new links, updating others, or removing those that are no longer available. If you're looking for something in your field of interest, for a hobby or upcoming trip, look no further. No membership or sign in is required.

Medical Matrix

If your thirst for knowledge is insatiable, and Martindale's still leaves you hungry for more, then try Medical Matrix (http://www.medmatrix.org/reg/login.asp). Medical Matrix is a free directory of selected medical sites on the Internet. Reviewers from their panel of physicians and medical librarians have carefully evaluated each site listing. Medical Matrix lists only those sites that meet their criteria for information quality and site usability, with an emphasis on usefulness to healthcare practitioners.

Although it is free, Medical Matrix does require registration and the use of a password (your last name and email address) in order to access the wealth of information contained within their site.

According to the editors, "The Medical Matrix Project is devoted to posting, annotating, and continuously updating "full content, unrestricted access, Internet clinical medicine resources. Our target audience is primarily United States physicians and healthworkers who are on the front line in prescribing treatment for disease conditions. Medical Matrix assigns ranks to Internet resources based on their utility for point-of-care clinical application. Quality, peer review, full content, multimedia features, and unrestricted access are emphasized in the rankings. To ensure that the ranks are applied systematically, and as objectively as possible, they are reviewed by our editorial board and assigned 1-5 stars" according to criteria listed at the website.

As a primarily clinically directed collection of web sites, Medical Matrix would have a greater appeal to clinical educators, but there is more than ample information and enough web sites for the basic scientist as well. Ideally, the site was designed to be used during the actual clinical encounter. The site itself is searchable. It also affords the visitor the capability to do a Medline or refined topical clinical search. Other selections available include a listing of sites in Patient Education; Symposia on the Web; Rx Assist; CME; Journals; and lastly, Textbooks.

There are currently 3150 specialty entries including 80 in Ophthalmology; 650 Disease entries including 8 in the Eye section; 331 in Clinical Practice (e.g. Decision Making and Tools); 222 in section entitled Literature including listings for 25 full-text online clinical journals; 294 Education listings including Basic Sciences and Anatomy; 377 in Healthcare and Professionals; 219 in Medical Computing, Internet and Technology; and lastly, 89 entries in Marketplace.

Of course, it is almost impossible for any one site to contain listings for all the relevant information available on the Internet. Diligent searching and discussion with colleagues or even columns like this can certainly be helpful in directing you to web sites that meet your needs as optometric educators. However, Martindale's and Medical Matrix are two of the foremost web sites on the World Wide Web and are an excellent place to start your initial search pertinent information.

Dr Dell is associate dean for educational programs at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and can be reached at or 215-780-1415.