How does one know whether or not a certain text is credible??

[lPainDoc]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Are most medical textbooks credible if there are plenty of contributors in edition to references?

I'm just a high school senior but I am reading medical texts due to my interest in certain subjects.

I'm just wondering if one is expected to trust the text or do people actually refer to the references to check the background data? Where do you guys generally buy your textbooks from anyways?

 

[Law2Doc]

Are most medical textbooks credible if there are plenty of contributors in edition to references?

I'm just a high school senior but I am reading medical texts due to my interest in certain subjects.

I'm just wondering if one is expected to trust the text or do people actually refer to the references to check the background data? Where do you guys generally buy your textbooks from anyways?

You might want to focus on posts in the Aspire board, as you are many many years away from needing to look at medical texts, and they are simply of no value for anyone in high school.

In general folks in med school don't really use texts, we study from note-sets/syllabi and lecture notes drawn from a variety of resources. Textbooks are used as secondary resources, if at all. But the current ones generally are pretty reliable, or they don't get republished. So if you find a current book that is on its 2d or later edition, it's a safe bet that it is trustworthy. Folks in med school most often buy textbooks in med school bookstores or off online publishers.

 

[lPainDoc]

You might want to focus on posts in the Aspire board, as you are many many years away from needing to look at medical texts, and they are simply of no value for anyone in high school.

In general folks in med school don't really use texts, we study from note-sets/syllabi and lecture notes drawn from a variety of resources. Textbooks are used as secondary resources, if at all. But the current ones generally are pretty reliable, or they don't get republished. So if you find a current book that is on its 2d or later edition, it's a safe bet that it is trustworthy. Folks in med school most often buy textbooks in med school bookstores or off online publishers.

Thanks for your insight.

Actually, I have a current medical condition that requires education on my part. I have a interest in learning more about my condition to better manage the symptoms. I figure that early managment and understanding would lead into a better prognosis.

By the way, do you guys study Latin/Greek roots so that you can surmise the definitions of most medical terms? Does taking a class in medical terminology cover basically most of the terms? What resource (i.e. dictionary or online reference) do you guys prefer?

 

[Law2Doc]

Thanks for your insight.

Actually, I have a current medical condition that requires education on my part. I have a interest in learning more about my condition to better manage the symptoms. I figure that early managment and understanding would lead into a better prognosis.

By the way, do you guys study Latin/Greek roots so that you can surmise the definitions of most medical terms? Does taking a class in medical terminology cover basically most of the terms? What resource (i.e. dictionary or online reference) do you guys prefer?

Nobody studies latin/greek as background for medical terminology anymore, and there are no courses on "medical terminology" -- you learn the terms as they come up. I think this post suggests why it's not a good idea to try and read a medical textbook as a high school student; these are meant for folks in medical classes and need to be read in that context. They are lousy resources to look up a particular condition as a patient. Try WebMD or some other resource meant to be digested by a non-physician, and you will have higher yield.

Any medical dictionary should be adequate for most of the terminology in any medical text or article.

 

[HumidBeing]

You can probably buy a Medical Terminology textbook at your local community college. It's a course that's often required before allied health professions sequences.

Most people don't specifically study Latin or Greek roots now to prepare for medical education. I think they may have done that many years ago, though.

 

[gro2001]

In European medical schools, there is generally more emphasis on learning Latin. Most schools have a separate course for Latin, and in some schools graduating students can just about speak Latin by the time they graduate. American medical schools don't bother.

Personally I don't think it is really necessary to spend so much time on Latin grammar these days. In the past most scientific and medical texts were published in Latin. Also, Latin was the lingua franca of the medical community. Now, English serves both these purposes.

Some Latin terms will stick with you (profunda brachii for deep brachial artery), others you will forget and not miss them.

 

[Tired]

In general folks in med school don't really use texts, we study from note-sets/syllabi and lecture notes drawn from a variety of resources. Textbooks are used as secondary resources, if at all.

Man I hope you're kidding.

 

[ertraumashield]

The website should be a .net or .org or .edu! I also personally go to the medical library and take out med. text books and just read them. I mean, I started doing this my freshmen year of high school and contuine too. Their easy to read! 🙂

 

[marieantoinette]

.

 

[Law2Doc]

Man I hope you're kidding.

Nope. The med schools of today are getting away from texts. It's part of the whole paperless movement. People still buy things like Robbins and Netters for the pictures, but there are online versions of even those things. Expect this trend to continue over time. The textbook industry is going to lose its market in this field.

 

[URHere]

If you really want to learn all you can about a certain medical illness, this is what I would suggest.

1) Find a simple, easy to follow primary text. This may be something aimed at the general public, or it may be a text book published for an undergraduate microbiology/physiology/etc course.

2) Once you have gathered what you can from your credible source, you need to go into more detail and look at more recent information. This is where literature searches come into play. If you have access to a university library, use their PubMed database to find research articles on what you want. Just a warning though - most of these articles are written for people who specialize in given fields and you may have a very hard time understanding them as a high school or even an undergraduate student. (Note: something is generally credible if it is widely accepted and supported by research. In the medical field, recent published texts are generally credible. You should be wary of very old material or internet sites that are not sponsored or approved by legitimate medical organizations.)

3) If you still feel like you need more information, you could also try hunting out a specialist who works with the disease or looking for talks given by researchers.

Best of luck.

Note: As for latin, you will kind of learn it as you learn terms in general anatomy - I doubt it helps much to know the latin beforehand.