Saunders' Pocket Essentials of Clinical Medicine
This year, Elsevier earned over 1.5 billion dollars in sales from its online journals. As most librarians will tell you, part of the reason is an astonishing hike in subscription charges.
So it is a pleasant surprise to see how they have priced this title. £18.99 is a fair price for such a colourful paper book. £18.99 for the electronic version is an extremely fair price when all other major medical publishers charge over $60. And the combo-price of 29.99 means that Elsevier are to be commended for serving their customes so well.
The content itself is excellent. It is a pocket version Kumar and Clark's popular Clinical Medicine, making it a serious competitor for the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine ($60). It is appropriate for medical students learning for their exams and hospital specialists referring to informtion from other specialities. The text is impressively detailed and exam-oriented, including a question and answer session that is ideal for on-the-go revision.
Screenshot of starting page of the electronic book on a Palm-compatible handheld computer
Screenshot of table of contents of the electronic book on a Palm-compatible handheld computer
Screenshot of calculator in the electronic book on a Palm-compatible handheld computer
Screenshot of examination questions in the electronic book on a Palm-compatible handheld computer
The electronic version also has medical calculators and rapid access to the sections on medical emergencies. Its CD is officially designed for installing onto PCs, Palm-compatibles and Pocket PCs. But it can also work with almost any other handheld device, including Psions and Symbian-compatibles.
What are the faults? The emergencies section is a little light (especially the management of chest pain); the navigation takes a little getting used to; and the initial setup is cumbersome. All in all though an excellent text, excellently produced.
Book details
Title - Pocket Essentials Clinical Medicine
Authors - Anne B. Ballinger and Stephen Patchett
Publisher - Saunders
Paperback ISBN - 070202645X Buy the bookFrom Amazon UK or From Amazon.com |
Electronic book ISBN - 0702027278 Buy the bookFrom the publisher |
