Internal Medicine: Handbook for Clinicians

I've owned every pocket guide and this is one is really well-designed! I've had 2 pound, 1000 page 'pocket guides' (which gave me daily headaches from carrying them in my whitecoat pocket) that were far less helpful than this small/lightweight book. From common issues like.... Constipation. When you are on in-house call and the nurse pages you and he/she wants to know what to give a patient for constipation? It's right there at your fingetips. Try to find it in those other guides. How can you make a med student/intern/resident handbook and not address issues like constipation? To things like..... Vent settings....or procedures....or actual DOSAGES for the medicines they recommend. How many times I've opened the other guides to find: 'administer heparin' (or similar statements) well...thanks...BUT HOW MUCH and...HOW OFTEN?! Do they expect me to then open a pocket pharm guide and try and cross reference for the particular situation? Definitely NEEDS updated (WITHOUT changing the design please!) as it's seven years old, but it's still the best thing to carry in your pocket. Incredibly well thought out and designed. It's obvious to me that the authors are doctors who KNOW what you are going through as a student/intern/resident.

This is the best handbook out there. In the past I have used the MGH manual, Ferri and the Washington manual, as well as one I made myself. There is no question that this is the only book, aside from Sanford, that I use on a daily basis. I use it for calculations, quick reviews, and even for teaching. On more than one occasion I have based a lecture on the format used in this handbook.

This book is now literally the only book (besides my Palm Pilot) I carry on the wards. It has an amazing wealth of information from ECG criteria for the diagnosis of wide complex tachycardia, to Coumadin dosing algorithms, to guidelines for thyroid nodule evaluations. All guidelines/recomendations are extensively refrenced to the primary literature. Ounce for ounce, the best and most comprehensive medical handbook!

Ever since I started carrying this book around, I have had no use for all the other cards and books I used to carry. In fact this book and the palm pilot with epocrates are the only things a medical resident should ever need. The information is complete, concise and up to date with full references. The book is well written, perfectly layed out and easy to navigate. And of importance to any housestaff/medical student, it's small and light and fits in any coat pocket...

Medical students are constantly searching for the perfect books to fill our pockets- this is small, concise, and well-laid out for quick reference. The decision trees and explanations for work-ups of different presenting symptoms are especially helpful.