Davidson’s essentials of medicine. J Alastair Innes, editor. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2009 (xii + 861 pp). ISBN 978 0 7020 3001 7.

Davidson’s essentials is intended as a portable mini-textbook of medicine, primarily for medical students, for reference and reading while “on the move”. Although portable electronic formats such as PDAs may be good for reference purposes, they can be difficult to read or study from. Likewise, many existing handbooks use a list-based presentation that is not suitable for the novice learner seeking basic comprehension. Thus, Davidson’s essentials is a useful contribution that generally achieves the stated goals of its editor.

It is a multi-authored work, but good editing means chapters have a consistent style and easy readability. A very useful feature is a one-page summary of the examination features for each organ system. This is a valuable learning tool that relates the presentation of each system to the examination of the actual patient. Indeed, each of these summary pages would make a good educational poster. The photographs are in colour and are generously sized. Tables and diagrams are used judiciously, and are educational rather than exhaustive.

This is an excellent little textbook, but is by no means perfect. It fits easily into a bag, but is just a little too large and heavy to carry in the pocket. The chapter on emergencies and critical care is not long enough to give more than a cursory outline of shock, organ failure and resuscitation. Likewise, the discussion of geriatric syndromes is far too short for my liking. The last chapter gives sample OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) questions, but too few to be really useful; the book would not suffer if this final section were omitted.

This book is definitely value for money, given the price of comparable handbooks. I recommend this for medical students beginning clinical work; allied health workers working in an unfamiliar area may find it useful for reference.