ObjectiveOcular fundus disease is one of the most complex areas of ophthalmology and a difficulty in ophthalmic education and training. Fundus imaging is an essential tool and reliable method for teaching fundus diseases. At present, the development of fundus imaging has entered the multimodal era. The traditional teaching mode is difficult to meet the current increasing teaching needs. This study aims to evaluate the application value of case-based learning (CBL) combined with multimodal imaging in clinical teaching of ocular fundus diseases.MethodsAll the thirty-four postgraduate students studying at the Ophthalmology Center of Beijing Tongren Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University were included. All the students were during the standardized training period for residents at the same level of training. The traditional teaching group included 16 students who studied from September to December 2023, and the CBL multimodal imaging teaching group included 18 students who studied from January to April 2024. All students were initially tested for basic knowledge of ocular fundus diseases. After the basic training and examination, the traditional teaching group was taught the characteristics of various common fundus diseases in each imaging mode; the CBL multimodal imaging teaching group was taught the characteristics of multimodal imaging based on each disease of common fundus diseases. The two groups conducted single mode imaging and multimode imaging examination in stages as the teaching schedule, and finally took the theoretical examination and clinical case analysis examination. The score results of the theory examination, image analysis and case analysis examination were compared at each stage.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the scores of fundus basic knowledge examination, basic imaging knowledge examination, and single mode image analysis (P = 0.44, 0.62,0.38). The scores of multimode image analysis, final theoretical examination, and case analysis in the CBL multimode imaging group were all significantly higher than those in the traditional teaching group (P = 0.02, 0.01, 0.02). Meanwhile, the proportion of students with better performance in final theoretical examination and case analysis examination was higher in the CBL multimodal imaging teaching group than that in the traditional teaching group. In the questionnaire survey, CBL multimodal imaging teaching mode has incomparable advantage over traditional teaching mode in students' learning interest and initiative(P = 0.001). And students in CBL multimodal imaging teaching group also had higher recognition and subjective evaluation on their study ability, clinical thinking and case analysis ability than that in traditional teaching group(P = 0.01, 0.02, 0.01).ConclusionCBL combined with multi-modal imaging is an efficient method in the ocular fundus disease teaching of postgraduate students. It helps to increase students' image discrimination and case analysis abilities, and improve their clinical work.