Essential Medical Facts Every Clinician Should Know: To Prevent Medical Errors, Pass Board Examinations and Provide Informed Patient Care / Edition 1

by Robert B. Taylor

Overview

Essential Medical Facts presents selected literature-based information clinicians need to know to provide informed patient care and avoid medical misadventures. Facts that can help make us better and safer clinicians include knowing the usefulness of palmar crease pallor in detecting anemia (not reliable), antibiotics that can cause a false positive opiate urine drug screen (fluoroquinolones), and an occasional early clue to testicular cancer (gynecomastia). Of course, keeping up to date on current medical knowledge and being curious about the implications of published research conclusions not only help assure superior clinical performance; they also bolster the preparation for board examinations. Robert B. Taylor, MD is the author and editor of more than two dozen medical books and several hundred published articles, as well a veteran of both rural private practice and chairmanship of a medical school clinical department. Essential Medical Facts is written for clinicians in all specialties, at all stages of professional life. It is a must have book for students, residents and practicing physicians, as well as nurse practitioners and physician assistants actively involved in clinical diagnosis and management of disease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441978738
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	01/27/2011
Edition description:	2011
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Robert B. Taylor is a professor emeritus of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, and is the author of more than 25 books.

Table of Contents

Medical facts, errors and this book.- Challenging current medical misconceptions.- Epidemiologic realities and gee-whiz facts.- Disease prevention and screening.- Risk factors and disease correlates.- Practical clinical pearls.- Laboratory testing, electrocardiography and imaging.- Alarming symptoms and red flag findings.- Therapeutic insights.- Idiosyncratic and uncommon drug effects.- Drug interactions and adventures in polypharmacy.- Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.- Unforseen, counterintuitive and possibly prophetic findings.- Some timeless truths about medical practice.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)
Description: This is collection of what traditionally are known as pearls.
Purpose: It is designed as a book of prompts of clinical significance for clinicians.
Audience: The book is intended for primary care clinicians with an interest in these clinical pearls as the author assumes a certain level of medical knowledge in order to put this information in perspective.
Features: A premise is presented and answered based upon one or two articles in the medical literature. In the preface, the author explains his abstracting of the literature, but there is a significant danger that a clinician could wind up basing a clinical decision on one article that may or may not agree with the larger fund of knowledge on the subject.
Assessment: Unquestionably, there are interesting concepts (pearls) here, but I would be concerned that there is not enough real science to support some of the conclusions, and further evidence-based approaches may prove contradictory to those in this book.

Doody's Review Service