The image of internal medicine | |
Atlas of internal medicine on CD-ROM. Eugene Braunwald (editor). Philadelphia: Current Medicine, 1999 (xiv + 434 pp + CD-ROM). ISBN: 1 57340 128 5. |
This atlas is designed
specifically for "primary care physicians". It comprises 1500 images (colour photographs, sketches, algorithms, charts and tables), with legends and supporting text. The 13 chapters, from respected contributors, cover the breadth of medical specialties, including dermatology.
The Editor-in-Chief, Eugene Braunwald, is an eminent cardiologist and Faculty Dean for the academic program at Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General Hospital. With such illustrious contributors the atlas is a great disappointment. Searching for images is easy. Each chapter has up to 22 broad sections and searches target keywords. Book-marking, tagging and highlighting are available with "pop-up" references to text. "Thumbnail" sketches of images can be enlarged to fill the screen. Images, legends and text can appear on the same screen. But if an atlas is judged by the quality of its images, this product falls short. The on-screen photographs and sketches just do not compare with the illustrations found in most good textbooks, and it is often difficult to see which abnormalities are referred to. This is a particular problem in the extensive dermatology chapter. It is unclear when images and texts were last updated. Sources are acknowledged but there are no dates and, although charts and tables provide useful summaries, there is a sense of uneasiness which comes from not knowing how current the images are. Also it is not possible to copy any of the images, a key component in the usefulness of atlases. The text is inconsistent and chapter styles vary considerably. In some chapters the text outlines recent publications and gives pathophysiological explanations, but others are largely descriptive. It is unclear who really benefits from an atlas like this. For an overview it is probably better to read a well-illustrated text. I would not take this disc to a desert island. Peter B Greenberg
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