Pocket-sized clinical companion | |
Internal medicine on call. Australian adaptation. Napier M Thomson, Steven A Haist, John B Robbins (editors). Sydney: McGraw-Hill, 2003 (xx + 695 pp). ISBN 0 074 71035 4. |
The important attributes
of a ready-reference book are accessibility, clarity and relevance. All of these qualities are embodied in this volume, which has been appropriately adapted for the Australian situation by Napier Thomson of Monash University. The format is based on a list of common clinical issues that occur in the day-to-day mix of the care of people with acute illness, or complications of an ongoing state. The text is brief and informative, the editors fulfilling a need for useful information in the context of problem solving.
There is a section on procedures that will help to relieve some of the apprehension felt by less hands-on readers and aid their interaction with specialist colleagues. Similarly, the section on medications is instructive, and a useful ready reference. Overall, this is a useful companion to other information sources, especially for those at the extremes of medical practice — the neophyte and the ageing consultant or general practitioner. I could find few deficiencies, although the absence of venous thrombosis as a separate topic was a surprise. This book will just fit into a pocket and so deserves a place in the quick-reference domain — it should prove popular for this reason. Peter A Castaldi
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