The Eye Teachers of America (ETA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving ocular education on a global scale. Our goal is to improve awareness of eye-threatening diseases for both patients and health-care workers alike. By teaching about the eye, we hope to empower the world to a better visual future.

About
To maximize our educational “effectiveness” we utilize novel teaching approaches. Instead of boring direct mail campaigns,  we are focused on reaching people with online videos, illustration, and helpful tutorials.   

Method
Our goal is to teach as many people as possible with the least expenditure of money and resources. Internet publishing allows us to reach a huge population of interested students  with minimal distribution costs. Based on this goal of “maximum educational impact,” here are some of our current projects:

OphthoBook.com The free online ophthalmology book. Focusing on basic eye knowledge and exam skills, OphthoBook has been read by students around the world and has garnered rave reviews (just read the comments on the site). You can read all the chapters online or download and print the book in its entirety. The video lectures generate much interest and are worth watching! This website pulls in over ten thousand unique visitors a month and this traffic has been doubling yearly. The ETA donates a certain number of the printed book to schools and libraries.

RootAtlas.com An online atlas of ocular findings captured at the microscope. These videos are much easier to comprehend than traditional photography, and some of the findings have never been documented with video before! RootAtlas is the largest and most popular slit-lamp “video collection” on the web. Many of the videos and photos are available for download so that other educators can insert them into their own powerpoint presentations and share this knowledge. This site draws twelve thousand unique visitors a month, though the actual “number” of rootatlas videos watched is much higher via cross-posting on YouTube.

Future Projects:

We have several educational projects in the wings that are about to be launched, pending review (and funding). These include:

• OphthoTalk.com - Podcast audio show about basic eye conditions, geared toward patients and new students
• EyeDeck.com – Flashcard-based learning modules on specific eye topics

If you have an interest in ophthalmology (and have background in html, photoshop, illustration, or writing) and would like to volunteer, please let us know.  Also,  we are open to ideas for future projects!