Harrison's INTERNAL MEDICINE...

[OneStrongBro]

Just out of curiosity. How many of you guys have heard of this book or currently own it.

I'm a second year, and I heard it is a good book for Medical school and for Steps 1-3.

I would love any kind of comments.

P.S. Can you guys think of a "Bible" for physiology. I would like to have a reference book for permanent keepsake. I heard Costanzo, Rhoads, Boron, Berne-Levy, and Ganong are all good.

However, my budget would only allow one purchase.

thanks

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[Bobblehead]

Do not buy Harrison's, especially as a medical student. Harrison's is something you grab from the library shelf. It's far too detail oriented for your purposes. If you're looking for a good "book" type reference for your clinical internal medicine rotation something like Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment published by Lange on an annual basis is a good cheap consideration (roughly $70). You do not need to buy more than one edition. What you need to know (clinical findings, epidemiology, diagnosis, general treatment, etc.) does not change that significantly but Lange needs to make money each year. The sections are short enough to read in under an hour on your patients (i.e. if your patient has 5 major diagnoses you can get all the reading done on call).

Online the best reference is uptodate which is available for $210 per year. It's by far the best clinical reference due to its accessibility. It's updated more frequently than textbooks as well.

 

[ckent]

I would second the previous users recommendations in not purchasing Harrison's. You will only use it if your attending asks you to look up something esoteric, and even then, there is usually a copy in the team room or in the library. It's far too heavy of a book to lug around in your book bag. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment is by far the most practical, consise book in internal medicine IMO. I wouldn't go out and purchase uptodate.com yet either, sometimes you can get residents or other students to share their accounts with you or your hospital/ library may already have a subscription. emedicine.com is an excellent free resource for looking up general things. Regarding your physiology book, maybe it's just because I'm not very far in my training yet, but I've never found that I needed to know anything in physiology that wasn't covered in a review text book such as BRS. It's physio without all the "research" info. I'd save your money on that front.

 

[DrMom]

I'm supposedly supposed to have it for one of my classes. I haven't needed it once. Current can be helpful, though.

 

[coldsteel]

I was given Harrison's as a gift. It is the internal medicine bible. You won't need it unless you plan on IM residency. I think the best physiology reference book to own is Guyton and Hall's Medical Physiology. It really is a great book, and will be a good reference no matter what you go into.

 

[Smurfette]

At my institution, Harrison's is free online. www.harrisonsonline.com

I am unsure if it is free to everyone or if my school has a subscription that allows everyone access from their home computers when they dial into the school's computer for internet access. Definitely worth trying before paying megabucks for harrison's! My hospital also has an UpToDate subscription---many hospitals do. You might want to ask an upperclassman or resident about what online subscriptions your institution has.

BTW, I would HIGHLY recommend Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment. Very useful, most of the residents here use and love it too. And it's more portable than Harrison's.

smurfette

 

[ckent]

Originally posted by Smurfette
At my institution, Harrison's is free online. www.harrisonsonline.com

Nope, just tried that website. Your networking system must pay a subscription fee. Most esoteric things that are found in Harrison's can be found by doing a google search too though, if you know what you are looking for. People put everything on the internet these days.

 

[BiggMann79]

At my institution Harrison's is considered the "other" internal medicine textbook. Of course the fact that Dr. Andreoli, the author of Cecil's Essentials of Medicine is the chair of the department of Internal Medicine might have something to do with that. Now that is a brilliant but very intimidating man.

 

[Wrigleyville]

You can use it online at my school if you're logged onto the network (either physically in the computer lab or VPN into the network). The book itself is way, WAY to large to even consider buying.

 

[flighterdoc]

If you really want to buy it, there is a PDA version available.

Also, you can often find brand new (in the box) copies on ebay for something like half-price.

 

[DrQuinn]

man, i would so suggest NOT to use Harrison's for studying for the USMLE or COMLEX. That would be score-suicide!

I got a Harrison's for free as a 2nd year. Looked up ONE thing (Hepatitis C) since. I use my EM texts for everything (even as a student I used EM texts as they're very thorough and give you all the information you'll need to protect the pimping).

Q, DO

 

[ubiquitous]

Our required text for second year is Cecil Essentials of Medicine. Anyone have any thoughts on that compared to Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment? Is it the same type of book or would you only recommend Current Med. for 3rd and 4th year?

Thanks!

 

[ckent]

Originally posted by ubiquitous
Our required text for second year is Cecil Essentials of Medicine. Anyone have any thoughts on that compared to Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment? Is it the same type of book or would you only recommend Current Med. for 3rd and 4th year?

Thanks!

Yeah, we had to purchase cecil's since it was one of the "required" readings during second year too. I think that I've only opened that book once, during third year, just to look up something that I couldn't find in Harrison's or Current (it wasn't in Cecil's either). Some of my classmates liked using Cecil's during second year and a little bit during third year, but I can' t stand that book. It's poorly written IMO, and a lot of the stuff it has regarding therapy isn't specific or current. You would be much better off with a current med IMO. I guess you could purchase current med during 2nd yr, but it would be most useful during 3rd year and beyond. Current publishes a new edition that comes out every November too, I'm sure that there isn't a lot of difference between one edition versus another one, but that's something else to consider too. For the most part, I'd reccomend sticking with board review books and your class notes for second year.

 

[Buck Strong]

We use Harrisons all the time here during MS2, it's almost a requirement, unless you want to shift through up to date. It's great for looking up stuff for PBL. For the boards though, it's worthless, it's way too detailed. Probably half of our class own Harrisons. I'm waiting for the new edition to come out in late 2004. At the same time, I think I forget most of the stuff I read in harrisons right after we meet for PBL, since it's just too much info. If your school doesn't require you to know that much detail for stuff like PBL, don't bother, just learn the bare minimum for the boards.

 

[miler]

QuinnNSU,
What EM texts do you normally use?
Just curious..

 

[coldsteel]

Cecil's Essentials of Medicine is a condensed version of the "big" Cecil's Textbook of Internal Medicine. We used it for the medicine clerkship during 3rd year. I found it to be well written, and the perfect textbook for the medicine clerkship. It is geared for medical students, and I guarantee that reading this book will significantly boost your step II score. I wouldn't even bother with it during 2nd year, though.

 

[McTaggart]

With regard to physiology textbooks: Boron and Boulpaep is fairly bulky but I find it pretty useful as a reference text and it's not too dense. Most people in my class use a combination of B&B and Costanzo to study physio.

McT

 

[Blade28]

I bought in in first year, but didn't really use it much until second year. Used it sparingly during my Internal Medicine rotation. Great book, though, has most everything you need for medicine.