Customer Reviews

Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook Series)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're looking for an overloaded, and generally not helpful pocket medicine book that doesn't actually fit in your coat pocket...you may want to look elsewhere. But if you want a great book that covers all the most important points of critical topics with consistent efficiency, this is most definitely the book you want to buy. The amount of important and consistently helpful information this little stack of pages fits in is very helpful, particularly for us medical students who seem to consistently be on the receiving end of those pimping questions that we need a quick way to look up the answer to. I'll admit I don't have any of the 600 pages of the Washington Manual, but I'm not sure it can really be considered a "pocket" medicine book...more along the lines of a "rolling suitcase" medicine book. Buy this book, you will not regret it.

This is a good reference book for those who have become acclimated to the clinical environment, but if you are just starting, the abbreviations used through the book and transition from diagnosis to treatment leaves little to learn from. A good reference book, but a medical student would be better off with a more comprehensive manual in the early stages.

My item shipped before the stated date. When it arrived it was in new condition like described. The book has been updated and some algorithms streamlined. Especially the pre-op clearance section has been clarified since the red book version (much needed). The pages are also thicker and sturdier than the red book's so they won't rip or get damaged as easily. Despite the thicker pages, the green book seems to weigh the same as the red book. I would highly recommend this book for any 3rd year medical student to 3rd year IM resident.

I have never figured out, as a student and resident, what to do with this book. It's neither a quick reference, nor a learning textbook. It's somewhere in the middle, giving a lot of textbook info in a small amount of space, but nothing specific to help you in a crunch. I found myself looking on uptodate instead. Some people swear by it, but I started adding stuff to the back to make it worth carrying around, but finally gave up. If I'm going to use it for study, I'd rather have a book I don't have to squint at and keep turning to the abbreviations page to figure out what it's talking about.

Many doctors (or doctors-to-be) at my hospital - student, resident, attending - carries around one of these. It's great for reminding you of the basics of most things you will encounter on an internal medicine service, for when you don't have time to dig through UpToDate or similar. It doesn't go in depth but that is not its purpose.

You can tell how long someone has been training by the color of their book. I have the green one because I'm a third-year student. Students further along as well as residents have the previous edition with a red cover. One of my attendings carries around the edition before that, with a blue cover.

This has a ton of information packed into it. It is only so big, and it lacks (by necessity) two things: 1) It does not have much in the way of treatment guidelines. 2) It does not have much in the realm of mechanism of disease. However, it does have info such as disease staging and expected abnormal lab values. It's a handy book to have in your pocket.

This current green version is significantly updated, much better organized, and easier to read with figures and algorithms. Extremely helpful when quick, high-yield information is required on the fly. Must have for medical students.

This is a great quick review for inpatient topics in the hospital. I like using it as I'm walking down to the ED to admit someone. It was a nice upgrade from the red version as it contains more updated articles, algorithms, etc. I wish it contained a few more topics, however. I also have dynamed on my phone which supplements a lot of what this doesn't cover. For everything else, there's up-to-date on the computer.

i pull this thing out all the time on the wards. great reference for differential diagnoses and important you-can't-miss-this teaching points.

Simply the best pocket book for internal (hospital and office) medicine. My coat is definitely lighter since I got hands on this book and it has never let me down.
Great job!