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5.0 out of 5 stars
A legend - truly the finest medicine handbook in the world, Jun 15 2002
By A Customer
The Oxford HCM in legendary the world over for some very simple reasons.1. The content is brilliant. I have always marvelled at how the authors managed to fit in so much in only a handbook. Discussions of etiology, pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical signs, investigations and treatment are all here, in concise and uncluttered text. These are understandably not exhaustive, but quite enough for you to get a sensible grasp of the subject at those moments when the attending is looking dangerously pimpish, or your patient has decided, very inconsiderately, to crash through the floor at an ungodly hour when you're the only chap with an MD hanging around the ward. 2. The editing is superb. Nothing extraneous here. 3. Evidence based. There is a genuine effort to make pronouncements only based on the available evidence, or, where this is lacking, on the experience of the authors. 5. An outstanding threesome of authors. Honest, sincere clinicians who write from the heart as much as from the head. The advice given to the medical student at the beginning of the book alone is worth the price. A note on one of the reviews below. This book is NOT only for the UK. There are two versions,
1. The yellow covered one published in Britain,
2. The blue covered one with David Thaler as editor The first one is the one in use virtually everywhere else in the world. A lot of countries, especially the Commonwealth nations, have medical systems based on the British. Drug names are the same. The second was prepared especially for American MDs. All drugs are noted by the name familiar to Americans. In addition there is an excellent drug index at the back of the American edition that has both trade and generic name for virtually every drug you will ever meet. So if you're American or Canadian, just buy the American edition.
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