I’ve been thinking a lot about specialization lately. Certainly, optometry is seeing more and more of it. O.D. retina specialists, for example, rarely fit contact lenses and the glaucoma experts aren’t doing many pediatric exams. Is this good for the profession? I think so. Every patient wants to see the doc who has the most experience in treating their specific ailment.

But specialization comes at a cost—to the practitioner, at least. For instance, any day now, the American Board of Optometry (ABO), is supposed to be releasing an outline of the test to become board certified. While no one’s seen the actual test yet, the ABO promises that it will test general knowledge. That means it will likely include everything from contact lenses, optics and pediatrics to retina, glaucoma and other ocular disease.

Granted, no one will be forced to take the board certification exam, but those who choose to do so may have a hard time of it if they are currently eating, sleeping and breathing a particular specialty.

All of this got me thinking about how Review can help and whether our editorial coverage is broad enough to keep you up-to-date on the full scope of optometric care. Every month, it’s a struggle to remain both engaging and cutting edge, while at the same providing educational information that can guide you in your everyday management of patients.

This month, we had the luxury of a “big book,” as we call it. That just means that companies and manufacturers were particularly supportive this month and purchased enough ad space to help offset the cost of additional editorial pages. What does that mean to you? Lots and lots of information that will help even the most highly specialized

O.D. to become current on the very broad range of topics that doctors are “expected” to know all about.

Here’s a list of this month’s eclectic features:

• Words Do Matter: A Case in Point
• Let Your Staff Run Your Meetings
• Secret Shopper Finds Lack of Contact Lens Education
• Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing: What You Can Do
• How to Help Prevent Cataract
• Managing Retinal Breaks
• Where We Fall Short in Pediatric Optometry
• Recognizing Best’s Disease
• Eye to Eye with Dr. Oliver Sacks
• Practical Coding for Comanaging Cataract and Refractive Surgery
• Corneal Refractive Surgery: Coming Full Circle

As we plan for 2011, Review will do all it can to help keep you current on everything optometry—even if your area of interest is very specific.