Product Description

The seventh edition of this highly acclaimed Oxford Handbook covers all the major specialties not covered in its companion handbook, the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. It continues to provide all the ideas and facts essential to those who will or who are already caring for patients whose needs may or may not fit within the traditional bounds of individual specialties. The text is concise and clear and laid out in the Oxford Handbooks' characteristic style of page-a-topic format, leaving space for the reader's own updatings and refinements. Updated throughout with extensive revisions in key chapters and all new colour illustrations, the text goes from stength to strength with every new edition. It is thoroughly up-to-date and more evidence-based than ever before. This pocket-sized book is brimming with practical advice and contains hundreds of links to reliable medical internet sites such as Medline and Clinical Evidence, enabling the reader to probe deeper into the topics covered. Above all, the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties remains human and humorous, and in this edition there is an increased emphasis on patient centred medicine. It provides not only the practical aspects of medical care, but also a philosophy of medicine which has come to be respected around the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15412 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Turtleback
• 864 pages

Review
Finally the new edition has arrived and in short it's brilliant. Northwing (Sheffield Medical School Magazine)

Review
...what really sets the OHCS apart from your bog standard turgid textbook, is its sheer entertainment value...and ability to keep you reading...did you know for instance that the posh name for hypochondria with somatisation is Briquet's syndrome which is also known as fat file syndrome? Well now you do and you can impress your friends! For less than the price of a slap-up meal out, you too can be the proud owner of the OHCS - a bargain if ever I saw one. (univadis.co.uk )

This bad boy, chummily referred to as the "salt'n'vinegar" does exactly what it says on the packet, delivering all the specialties you will encounter in life as a clinical medical student. ... OHCS is concisely planned and organised, with a fantastic index. The wonderful dangly book-mark bits are there as ever, and OHCS is also usefully cross-referenced with the cheese'n'onion. ... I cannot over-emphasise how helpful this book is during our speciality blocks in 4th and 5th years. Highly recommended. (SURGO, Glasgow University Medical Journal )

... an invaluable quick reference guide, either for as a reminder of a condition or for more detailed facts. ... This is a book that has stood, and will no doubt continue to stand the test of time. (Cambridge Medicine )

Northwing (Sheffield Medical School Magazine)
"Finally the new edition has arrived and in short it's brilliant."

Customer Reviews

completely indispensible
My copy of this book is breaking apart at the spine and has a few missing pages: this is a testment only to the fact that I've used it so much. I'm an SHO in Paediatrics now, and, since I bought this book in third year I have used it countless times as both as a quick reference guide, and during revision for numerous exams. I quickly came to rely on this book and it's yellow-skinned cousin (OHCM) for brief and memorable introductions to ailments I encountered on the wards and during my revision. This edition is divided into several chapters including Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Ophthalmology, ENT, Dermatology, A£E, Orthopaedics, General Practice, and Psychiatry (amongst others).

While some might feel the poetic subtext on many of the pages is somewhat annoying and pretentious (read the page entitled 'a journey on foot' in the orthopaedic section), I have always found it a welcome augmentation to the raw medical dimension contained within the books pages.

No junior doctor in the UK should be without these books, of that I am certain.

A must for any med. student for quick reference on the wards
This book together with the Handbook for Clinical Medicine is absolutely essential for survival on the wards. If you havn't got a clue what's wrong with the patient, what the consultant is talking about or what you are meant to do next- these books help you out. They are compact enough to stick in your pocket, but have enough information crammed in to tell you everything that you could be expected to know about any condition. As I said this is a must for any med. student or junior doc. The proof really is that these aren't some new fancy books that have to be put to the test now, everyone I've spoken to seems to have been using them for years- Good Luck!

An essential buy, but its not quite OHCM...
'Salt and Vinegar', as this book has affectionately come to be know, has become something of a bible to a 3rd year med student. It has most of the information you'd need for the specialty rotations.
When compared to the OHCM, however, improvements to the layout of some of the text needs improving.
Also, the 'insights' given in this book- quotes from books, ethical tangents, are all too often not insightful at all. They're long and not always optional reading, as they're woven into the essential reading.