Clinical Forensic Medicine: A Physician's Guide (Forensic Science and Medicine) [Hardcover]

Margaret M. Stark (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1588293688 | ISBN-13: 978-1588293688 | Edition: 2

This revised edition has been completely updated and expanded to address the latest developments and professional concerns in forensic medicine. There are new chapters on the medical aspects of police restraint and new material on the potential of police exposure to infection, the role of alcohol and drugs in vehicular accidents, and forensic sampling in sexual assault examinations. The chapters on fundamental principles, nonaccidental injury in children, and the care of detainees are all fully revised, as are the appendices (now containing a list of useful websites).

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is a reliable guide for practical forensic case work...recommended to physicians, forensic pathologists, and police officers." - Institute of Legal Medicine Reviews of the First edition: "This is the best textbook of clinical forensic medicine ever. It is essential reading for students and practitioners within this developing specialty. It is a most valuable guide and I unreservedly recommend it to all readers of this journal. It is written by a team of professionals from both sides of the Atlantic. The sexual examination (chapter 3) is covered exhaustively and includes 191 references. Similarly the chapter on substance abuse (Stark and Norfolk) covers the subject with great detail and includes 171 references. Traffic medicine, deaths in custody, crowd control agents and NAI are all given first class attention. The book itself has been beautifully printed on good paper. The text is clear and the proof reading cannot be faulted. I strongly advise all medico-legalists, police surgeons and forensic medical practitioners (including GPs) to have this textbook (it is more than a guide) on their shelves. It is required reading for all those who aspire to be forensic physicians or consultants-both in the US and the UK. Many in the allied professions will be well-advised to have access to this book. The Series Editor Karch and Editor Stark together with the Humana Press deserve warm congratulations from us for this superb textbook. The format and the clarity are so appealing. It deserves tremendous success." -Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine "One of the more useful features is a section on the principles of forensic medicine, a topic not typically covered in medical education. Two other topics covered in detail are sexual assault and traffic medicine, both of which have a good deal of relevant forensics not often understood by practitioners...This is a well-written text by an authoritative set of contributors. It is the first such book I have come across which is aimed at physicians." -Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Journal "In this day and age, all health care professionals need to be "forensically aware," especially when it comes to injury interpretation. This book offers basic guidelines on dealing wit fundamental principles of consent, confidentiality, note keeping court reports, and court attendance." -Consultant "...the editor and authors provide a comprehensive and up to date review of the current understanding of clinical forensic medicine. The text is divided logically into ten concise, easy to read chapters, some of which contain very useful "good practice tips."...The editor should be commended for brining together the wealth of experience of several months in a concise, easily readable and highly informative book on a subject of considerable importance not only to workers in the field of clinical forensic medicine but to many other health care professionals." -Resuscitation "...the clinical perspective of this very readable text makes it a useful and needed reference...this book is a welcome edition to a discipline that has few publications accessible to the clinician...it is recommended for most hospital and all academic medical libraries." -E-STREAMS From the reviews of the second edition: "With the recent establishment of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians, these are interesting times for clinical forensic medicine. … this book covers topics of interest to pathologists, as well as more traditional ‘police surgeon’ fare. A core skill of forensic physicians and pathologists alike is the assessment, documentation and interpretation of injuries, and a ‘multidisciplinary team’ approach is utilised to provide a concise overview of this important topic." (Dr R Jones, American College of Physicians News, Autumn, 2005)

From the Back Cover

This revised edition of a much praised survey of the fundamental principles of clinical forensic medicine has been completely updated and expanded to address the latest developments and professional concerns. There are new chapters on the medical aspects of police restraint, including injuries that may occur with handcuffs and truncheons, the use of crowd-control agents, substance misuse problems in custody, and the management of bites, head injuries, and self-inflicted wounds. Additional new material can be found on the potential of police exposure to infection, the role of alcohol and drugs in vehicular accidents, and forensic sampling in sexual assault examinations. The chapters on fundamental principles, nonaccidental injury in children, and the care of detainees are all fully revised, as are the appendices (now containing a list of useful websites). Authoritative and up-to-date, Clinical Forensic Medicine: A Physician's Guide, Second Edition offers forensic specialists and allied professionals a reliable guide to good practices and procedures for every variety of police inquiry requiring clinical forensic investigation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 455 pages
• Publisher: Humana Press; 2 edition (April 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588293688
• ISBN-13: 978-1588293688
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clinical Forensic Medicine A Physician Guide (2nd ed), June 23, 2008

By 

Dr. A. Jeffrey A. Hunt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clinical Forensic Medicine: A Physician's Guide (Forensic Science and Medicine) (Hardcover)

A Physician's Guide to Clinical Medicine (2nd ed.) is a multiauthored text edited by Dr. Margaret Stark and which forms part of the Forensic Science and Medicine series of Humana Press. From the point of view of the North American trained pathologist with subspecialty certification in forensic pathology and with a practice in hospital and forensic pathology, the book has provided new information in clinical forensic medicine and refreshed and enriched my expertise as a forensic and hospital pathologist.

The book is a multiauthored effort with most of the authorative contributors coming from the United Kingdom. The information is up-to-date, includes in a nutshell a substantial amount of material on clinical Forensic Medicine and is organized as follows: 1. The History and Development of Clinical Forensic Medicine Worldwide. 2. Fundamental Principles. 3. Sexual Assault Examination. 4. Injuries Assessment, Documentation and Interpretation. 5. Non-accidental Injury in Children. 6. Crowd Controlled Agents. 7. Medical Issues Relevant to Restraint. 8. Care of Detainees. 9. Infectious diseases: The Role of the Forensic Physician. 10. Substance Misuse. 11. Death in Custody. 12. Traffic Medicine.

The text is well written, easy to understand and short enough to read in its entity, even multiple times if desired, say in preparation for professsional examinations. A minor disappointment with the first chapter is that there is no inclusion of countries such as Japan, the United States and the Caribbean in the survey results. All the other chapters contain useful easily adaptable professional information for a worldwide audience. The book also has special appeal to family physicians, accident and emergency officers, surgeons, pediatricians, psychiatrists and public health personnel. As forensic medicine is scantily taught largely by unqualified personnel in medical schools throughout the world, medical students will find this publication a gem. A physician practicing in a less developed country, would be able to use this book, especially the proformas in the appendix, to help improve their medicolegal practice. References are accurate and appear to be specially chosen to provide further authorative information in cases where material had to be condensed such as in the chapter on Non-accidental Injury in Children.

There are very few typographical errors in the text, on pages 267 (severe) and 278 (custody) to name a few. A drawback is the relatively few photographs, all in black and white. There would be added value for audiences such as coroners, death investigators and District Medical Officers in Commonwealth countries such as those from the Caribbean, if a chapter on Death Scenes were to be included. The e-book is an added bonus but there is disappointment because of its restricted use on one computer.

Overall the second edition of the book continues to be a major success. It not only serves the target audience of physicians but would also be useful for medical students, police officers, paramedics, nurses and non-medical students in the forensic sciences. Although there is an abundance of information pertaining to the UK forensic system, practitioners in less developed countries would find this publication a very worthwhile investment as it is easily adaptable to their system. Forensic pathologists especially those in training and the more seasoned ones practicing in any geographic location would also find this text very useful.