Dr. Charles Highway &#187; Books

Best Pharmacology Texts

Charles Highway — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:24:05 +0000

There are basically only TWO pharmacology books you will ever need in med school. This is because a lot of the pharm knowledge is made available from other text books around the way.

Here we go:

NUMBER 1:

This basically the ONLY book you will ever need to supplement your pharmacology cravings. I only started using it from the middle of 2009, but now I can’t get enough of it. Brilliant presentation, simple layout, easy to read text and a lot of questions to keep you thinking long after the chapter.

Whether you are cramming for the boards or just other exams, it comes as an invaluable resource to the person using it. If you have to buy only one pharmacology text book then this is it.

NUMBER 2:

This book is definitely more detailed in its presentation of pharmacology than Lippincotts, but it still delivers the goods. This is actually the recommended text at my med school which is fine, however, I wish the uni had given us Lippincotts instead because I am more of a visual person and the previous text really fills that void.

Rang & Dale have created a textbook that is highly accessible and and enjoyable. It is however a British text book, but has the American equivalents listed in each chapter so you never feel left out.

Enjoy.

HONOURABLE MENTION:

Your number one source for up-to-date information on drug dosing, toxicities, pharmacokinetics, indications and drug interactions. However, it is used mostly by healthcare professionals as opposed to medical students.

Also See:

Top 6 Pathology Books

Charles Highway — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:23:51 +0000

Sorry it’s been a while but Exams, Christmas and New Years have been keeping me busy throughout the last few months.

Back to work: here are the ONLY pathology books you will need during your med schools years.

Number 1:

This is without a doubt one of the first pathology books you have to get (along with the Goljan Audio Files). He covers all the necessary fields (cardiovascular, endocrinology, GIT, etc) and has tonnes of pictures and clinical correlations that will help with your curriculum as well as the USMLEs. I don’t need to sell this text book to you because everybody knows Goljan.

Admittedly, the structure is in the form of bullet points and some people will not like this, but for the information you have to get through I have yet to find any other method that works.

Bottom Line: This book is great, buy it!

Number 2:

Here is an alternative or an additional book to study along with Rapid Review Pathology (Goljan). It is similar to Goljan’s text in that it has short sentences and tonnes of bullet points that explain everything.

I feel this text book is the fine balance between too concise and too wordy. Get it if you can’t be bothered reading ALL of Robbins and Cotrans – even though you should.

Number 3:

This is a book I use more often than I tell people. It is definitely more thorough than the earlier suggested texts, but I find it very well written and straight to the point. It explains a lot on epidemiology, pathophysiology and clinical relations (like all Patho books must); and it does this without getting to tedious or boring on the reader. If your attention span is a tad lengthier than RRP readers than this will suit you well.

Number 4:

If you have not decided to do a last minute cram for the USMLEs than this text book is the one for you. It has numerous USMLE type questions ranging from clinical vignettes, short answer questions to second order questions (e.g. factors/diseases associated with pathology) which really get you thinking. Each chapter bombards you with Q&A galore that will keep you ahead of the class and the game in general.

Sorry if I have just sold this text book as a USMLE Q&A reference. It does cover all areas of pathology and does it in a similar way to Robbins Basic Pathology – plain and simple.

Number 5:

Save the best for last (sort of). This is considered by some as one of the bibles of Pathology for medical students. i personally will have to say no, but a great deal of people I know have sworn by this text book and in my experience those have been the gunners of the class. Yes, those people who take notes, plan meticulously, read pre-readings and post-readings from lectures; this is the book for them. Does it cover EVERYTHING? – yeah, pretty much. Does it have high yield information? – yeah, if you can find it.

Don’t get me wrong if you have been reading this book from the first day of medicine you will be okay. If you, like most, have only realised that they need to get there shit together then I would stick with some of the earlier texts.

TIP: Go to the library and borrow this book for a month and then decide if you need it or not.

Number 6:

Companion books are pretty much for people with a bit of extra cash and find time to look up notes while on their clinical placement. I, for one, lack both money and time, hence why I do not have a copy of this but I have borrowed it from the library and found it rather useful when forced to use it.

It is basically an abridged version of the previous text (Number 5), but leaves out all the boring bits. I love the one page one diseaese layout – priceless.

Also See:

Top 8 Pediatric Books

Charles Highway — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:43:07 +0000

These books are not in any order. They are, however, rather necessary to get through any Peds/Paeds clinical rotation:

NUMBER 1

I can’t stop telling people how great the Lecture Note series of books are. They are concise, accurate and high yield sources better than most texts in their respective fields. The down side is they are fairly wordy and lack diagrams, which usually leads of boredom or study crash syndrome for some medical students. A lot of the older doctors who teach you on your clinical placements have either read or have been taught something from these books. Get yours now.

NUMBER 2

The USMLES are a rather grueling exam and take a lot out of numerous students every year. The BRS series of books helps to offer essential information that will help any student through the exam in the least number of pages. This particular text is straight to the point and offers high yield information, like the Lecture Note series, but with a more structured approach. The chapters are broken down well and each paragraph holds a wealth of information – so much so that just reading a couple of pages sometimes requires extra reading from other sources just to get the background knowledge behind the concept and not just an answer to a USMLE type question.

NUMBER 3

If you are a visual learner than this is the book for you. This is a text book that I found helpful during my Pediatric rotation. It has numerous diagrams and multi coloured pages that keep you engaged, however, that doesn’t mean that it goes light on the info. It offers numerous clinical case presentations as well as chapter summaries that really get the message of the chapter home because, as we all know, your clinical years depend on how well you can make connections between the theory and the clinical.

NUMBER 4

This is pretty straight forward text. A clinical scenario is presented and you are given some information and then asked a few questions on what the diagnosis might be (including further investigations etc). I enjoyed this book because it tries to offer non-text book presentations of known pediatric illnesses e.g. croup, bronchiolitis. This is great because EVERYONE who is on clinical placements knows that the reality of a disease is kinda different from the text on it. A must buy.

NUMBER 5

This is a book I have only ever really skimmed through and as such can not personally vouch for it, but a few of my comtemporaries will swear by it. Furthermore, these are people I study with and know their shit (some better than me I admit). What I tell you it does do well is its presentation of facts via key words, tables, figures, and key points. It has quite a number of board format type questions (and answers) as well as a myriad of pictures of various disease states. It’s probably one of the better Blueprint series books because I tend to think they are sub par in general.

NUMBER 6

The Oxford Handbook Series have been around for many years and over the years have expanded their series from Clinical Medicine to Obs & Gyn. This time they have tackled the Pediatrics and gives you guidelines/information on common, and uncommon, acute and chronic pediatric diseases/conditions. Get it so you quick access to neonatology, surgery, genetics, congenital malformations and child protection. Another must have for quick access.

NUMBER 7

This book pretty much serves as a massive Q&A session covering Pediatric cardiology, dermatology, nephrology, emergency medicine, neurology, hematology, etc. Any topic you can think of is discussed and an extensible amount of questions are asked – some straightforward others not so much. It’s brilliant for anyone who wants to know what type of questions they will be asked on placement and be able to understand the answers they give back

NUMBER 8

This is another one of the “Must Have” books on this list. The at a glance books have been around for quite a while and a seasoned favourite for all types of medical students – from the gunners to the almost never seen medical students. You simply have to love the way they explain the main pediatric topics, diseases and processes within in a space of 2 pages. How great is that? Even though you only get about 2 pages per topic, they are extremely high yield. Get it, study it and be THE MAN…of Pediatrics

Reference Text:

The is the BIBLE of Pediatrics aka The Gold Standard of pediatrics. Any specialist worth his salt will have this reference text book sitting on his desk in some edition or another. It contains EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about Peds, but goes into more detail than your usual medical student text book. The authors have taken great pains to make sure that the information is up to date and accurate. If you can afford it, this is the end all of Pediatric text books. Enjoy yourself.

Best Books for Future Surgeons

Charles Highway — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:36:51 +0000

Here are a set of books which will help you communicate better with the senior doctors (especially Surgeons) by having something in common with them. These books have been read by most residents and consultants in the hospital and helps in getting into the mind of some of them. It is in no particular order.

Enjoy!

This book is THE CLASSIC intern novel. It may have been written a long time ago, but most of the information is still relevant today. The novel follows the life of a first year intern (Dr Roy Basch) and all the people he encounters and befriends, from disgruntled patients to sexy romps with nurses. This novel is really for anyone who ever worked in a hospital from medical students, nurses, physiotherapists to doctors and hospital administraters. Any of the doctors who teach you have read this before (I promise) and quote it repeatedly. It is however a tad sexist (it was written in the 70s), but if you can get beyond that it is a pleasure to read.

This book is definitely one of my favourite surgery based non-fiction books (what a mouthful). Dr Gawande discusses various topics from learning through mistakes, doctor burnout, dealing with his child’s illness as well as the overall expectations for becoming a surgeon. This book is essentially a collection of essays he has written whilst working for The New Yorker and Slate. As such, the quality of writing is superb and easy to follow which makes for easy reading, even though the subject matter is not always light. If you have to buy one book specifically about surgery, this would be it.

Yes, yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking, “How can he have the same guy twice on the list?” A) He really is that good B) He makes reading about serious issues seem like walking on the beach. This time around he delves into the murky waters of medical and ethical dilemmas (essentially a collection of 12 essays) which were previously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the New Yorker. The great thing about Dr Gawande is his ability to made “big” issue topics enjoyable to read while still getting the message across. Do yourself a favour and buy both his books.

The book’s title says it all, “How Doctors Think.” Dr Groopman, explains how diagnoses are affected by emotions and how great doctors make great decisions as well as poor ones. He interviews a group of specialists and tries to determine, among other things, why one doctor will miss a disease and another will pick it up. This work covers numerous factors and aspects of medicine that lead to successful outcomes of patients as well as adverse ones; an example given is of a 82 pound woman who, for 15 years, had suffered from chronic diarrhoea, vomiting and weight loss, only to be correctly diagnosed with Coeliac Disease! Great read to understand how your colleagues may be analysing cases.

Dr. Pauline Chen is a transplant surgeon who shares her life experiences as well as some of the philosophies that have shaped her life to date. The Final Exam primarily deals with end of death care in the Emergency and Operating Rooms where she has spent most of her medical years. The tale is rather touching and she does discuss an important area of the medical field – detachment. Dr. Chen is not a fan of the casual, tried and tested method of ignoring our [doctors] emotions and moving on from case to case as if death can be dealt with so cavalierly. This book should be on your shelve.

Essentially, this should be called the Memoirs of an Orthopaedic Resident because that’s what this book is. Dr. Collins is able to accurately describe the life of a surgical resident by writing about what he experienced – from deciding whether or not to amputate a boys leg to covering for a resident on his first day. The prose is made even more appealing by Dr. Collins use of humour to pass his lessons to the next generation of doctors. Anyone who wants to know what a surgical residency is really like should get this book…so you know what the hell you are getting into.

A doctor talking so honestly about his residency is rare, let alone someone who writes a whole novel about it. Dr Jauhar is a cardiologist who reminiscences about his intern year and all the overwhelming pressure and distress he experienced (he actually had a serious episode of depression). You could look at it as an updated version of “The House of God” with some of the same issues dissected again, but this time with more feeling and realism than the former book. Don’t get it because you want to be a cardiologist, get it because you want to know about life.

Also See:

Supplementary USMLE Books

Best 5 Books to communicate with Doctors, Patients and other Medical Students

Charles Highway — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:52:32 +0000

Do you need help building rapport with patients and colleagues? This list of books will have you effectively conversing with people and looking good while you do so. Plus they will probably make you perform better than you classmates in clinical settings.

1) OR

This book is one of the most influential purchases you can make to help you become a better conversationalist when dealing with any kind of patient. Don’t let the title fool you into believing that you will be manipulating people in anyway, in fact it is quite the opposite; not only will you become better at negotiating your way around ‘problematic’ patients, but you will be able to direct dialogue in a fashion you want – which ultimately leads to a favourable outcome for the patient.

If you have ever been a fan of body language (like me) then this is the next book you should be reading. It covers EVERYTHING from hand signals, eye movements to cultural differences, and how these factors affect body language. Furthermore, it is easy to read through, though I recommend reading it twice to really benefit from it. This Book + You = Master of Observation.

He is another book unlike ‘Influence’ which deals in the psychology of people. The author, Paul Hogan, continuously repeats his belief in the Win/Win concept which I thought applied very well to the doctor-patient relationship – You Win = Patient Wins. This is not just another “persuasion” book that teaches you how to exploit the weaknesses of others, but is a book that encourages the reader to use his/her new found psychological skill set to help others (another similarity to medicine). While Robert Cialdini’s book is still the number one on this subject, Paul Hogan’s effect comes a close second.

It is still surprises me how long ago this book was written (first edition 1936) and how it still manages to remain relevant 70 plus years on. This book is written like a story and gives numerous examples as well as analogies which help stress the points he wants you to understand. ‘How to Win Friends…’ will be of great assistance when dealing with colleagues of any kind. As a medical student, you are exposed to a myriad of people all from varied backgrounds and the easier you can ‘blend’ in the better for you, not matter the situation.

I initially thought there was too much hype around this book, but after one read through I regretted not having started on this paperback earlier. If you don’t have Dale Carnegie in your collection, you really ARE missing out on some really brilliant life advice.

Also See:

Top USMLE Step 1 Books

Best Cardiology Books

Charles Highway — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:48:58 +0000

I LOVE Cardiology! Here are a few books, in no particular order, I use the most when tackling anything on this subject:

#1:

By Leonard S Lilly

This was one of my favourite books when I started med school. It is straight to the point and highlights most of the common heart pathophysiology you will come across in med school. It may not be as easy to get into as other text books, but few can beat it on the facts.

The book covers the following and more:

Pathogenesis of atherosclerosis
Pathophysiology of acute coronary syndromes
Mechanisms of heart failure
Molecular mechanisms of dysrhythmias
The genomic basis of cardiomyopathies and congenital heart disease
Pharmacology

#2:

By Michael A Chizner

This book is great because it offers so much for so little. Firstly, the book mostly covers clinical aspects of cardiology such as: history taking; physicals; ECGs (covered in 40 pages!), radiology, noninvasive and invasive diagnostic tests, and therapy (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic).

Secondly, the 3rd Edition of this book comes with a CD which contains a myriad of useful information, such as:

Heart sounds
Sample chest x-rays
ECG interpretation
A few Quizzes
Echocardiography

Well rounded book.

#3:

By Ronald W Dudek

This is another one of the “Medicine For Dummies” type book. It pretty much summarizes your first two years of Cardiology, and Cardiovascular Systems, in medical school and enables you to attain a quick grasp on on any of the following topics of the heart:

Embryology
Gross anatomy
Radiology
Histology
Physiology
Pathology
Microbiology
Pharmacology

PS It is also great for USMLE revision

#4:

By Dale Dubin

There isn’t much need to talk about this book much. The equation is simple:

You + Dale Dubin * Time = EKG Master

Seriously, if you don’t get EKGs then go for this little bit of text; 90% of the time you will be pleasantly satisfied.

HEAVY HITTERS:

The following two texts are not neccessary for you to pass medicine, but they do have extensive amounts of information on anything regarding Cardiology or the Cardiovascular System.

#5:

Braunwald’s Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine [Single Volume]

By Peter Libby , Robert O. Bonow, Douglas L. Mann, Douglas P. Zipes

This is one of the better large texts for clinical cardiology. The book contains numerous contributors and editors who ensure that the information provided is up to date in the areas of molecular biology and genetics to the latest imaging modalities, interventional procedures, and medications.

#6:

This book is one of the standard reference textbooks in cardiology. It contains practically EVERYTHING in regards to diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases. I advise to borrow this from your library because you only seriously need it if you are A) Super Keen Medical Student or B) A Cardiology Resident.

Also See:

Best 5 Anatomy Textbooks

Charles Highway — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:06:25 +0000

Here are my list of 5 of the Best Anatomy Resources ALL medical students should have:

Number One:

By Frank H Netter

This is one of the best in the field of Anatomy Textbooks. It features hand painted drawings by Frank H. Netter and his partners. This man had the single vision of getting anatomy across to medical students and doctors alike in an easy laid out format. There are accurate and clear diagrams that are presented in a systemic manner and give you an idea in which direction you should be heading in when dealing with cadavers. I wish I had bought this book earlier in my medical studies. ESSENTIAL. First book you should buy for anatomy!

Number Two:

By Johannes W Rohen, Chihiro Yokochi, and Elke Lutjen-Drecoll

Most of my friends, and myself, call this book “Yokochi” for short. It should come in second on your shopping list after Netter’s book. The book contains professional photographs of actual cadaver dissections and is probably the best book to have when you are in your dissection groups. Shows you how the internal organs change in colour, texture and size when being stored for medical students.

Number Three:

By Keith L Moore, Arther Dalley and Anne Agur

This book is not so great for working with cadavers, but it does cover a lot of the functional aspects of the organs involved and gives explainations to their clinical co-relations as well basic functions and complications that occur with the organs. Good for classroom, Not so great for the Anatomy Lab.

Number Four:

By John T. Hansen

These are pretty much the flash card versions of the Netters Anatomy Textbook. This is good for the last minute crams and each flash card has some extra information to help you prepare for the boards or just your end of year exams. Get cracking.

Number Five:

By Wynn Kapit and Lawrence M. Elson

I would suggest this book to people who are either new to anatomy or find it difficult to learn or study for. It pretty much is a colouring book which looks at every organ with an easy to learn approach. it may be time consuming to do on top of all your other work, but the best students in anatomy (in my year) are those who had used this book during undergrad and are probably the surgeons of our year.

Until next time, take care.

Also See: