intern handbook

[Roadrunner]

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This has been discussed in the past, but I'll bring it up again to refresh my memory. Any opinions what the best internal medicine intern handbook is? I'm considering purchasing Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics, 31st Edition or Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook Of Internal Medicine. Your thoughts??

 

[APACHE3]

I posted same questions a couple of weeks ago. No bites. I have the Blue Harvard book, but I use 5minCC on m PDA on the wards...so I'm not sure which is best..probably all 3!! 😀 PS Blue book seems more EBM based if that what your department is into!

 

[BStein76]

This has been discussed in the past, but I'll bring it up again to refresh my memory. Any opinions what the best internal medicine intern handbook is? I'm considering purchasing Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics, 31st Edition or Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook Of Internal Medicine. Your thoughts??

As a 4th year medical student, I like using the Pocket Medicine book on wards because it is smaller and quicker to read (small snippets of info; concise); there are also blank pages in the back to put down your own notes. I read the Washington Manual at home as a study guide (like Fluids/electrolytes) + UptoDate for specific diseases/studies/treatments.

 

[Mumpu]

UpToDate for specific diseases, Ferri's in my backpack, Tarascon Critical Care guide in my pocket, Epocrates on my Palm. Haven't felt the need to lug around anything bigger.

 

[Adcadet]

I've spent a fair amount of time comparing the hardcopy (spiral-bound) Washington Manual (31st ed) to the Skyscape PDA version for Palm. I think the PDA version is one of the best book-to-PDA translations out there. I haven't specifically looked at the MGH IM book, so I can't comment on that. But for me as an MS3 heading towards medicine, I would carry the hardcopy if I thought it was at all better; I don't, and comfortably carry the PDA version with me daily.

 

[Adcadet]

I've spent a fair amount of time comparing the hardcopy (spiral-bound) Washington Manual (31st ed) to the Skyscape PDA version for Palm. I think the PDA version is one of the best book-to-PDA translations out there. I haven't specifically looked at the MGH IM book, so I can't comment on that. But for me as an MS3 heading towards medicine, I would carry the hardcopy if I thought it was at all better; I don't, and comfortably carry the PDA version with me daily.

 

[panopticon1]

Your thoughts??

The MGH book is excellent but you'll quickly outgrow it. As a matter of fact, if you have access to Up to Date and Ovid, you'll stop carrying much reference material at all. I was down to Sanford Guide and Epocrates about 6 months into internship.

Internship pearl: You're going to be surprised at how much you actually know and how hard it is to find the answers to things you don't already know. The hype is worse than the job!

 

[coldfeet]

keep in mind that the skyscape versions of handbooks (wash manual, ferri's) don't have tables and figues.

 

[augmel]

There is a UCSF housestaff manual online that is really helpful. I have that on my work homepage and use it fairly frequently for quick cross-cover issues that I don't necessarily want to get indepth on at that moment. Other than that I just use sanfords, tarascon. and a constant stream of articles and uptodate downloads sticking out of my coat pocket.

 

[Koil Gugliemi]

All you need is UpToDate and epocrates. Maybe a few other calcs and notes on your palm to help your memory. You'll be at a computer looking up labs and images anyway, might as well look at UTD, it's usually better than the other stuff and you don't have to carry a crapload of heavy books around.

 

[Gharfunkle]

keep in mind that the skyscape versions of handbooks (wash manual, ferri's) don't have tables and figues.

Ah, but the new editions do I believe. At least my MGH Pocket Med book does.
Personally, I am hoping to have a harddrive with Up-to-Date implanted in my left Temporal lobe by July. I think that would be most efficient with respect to rapidity of recall and depth of information. Oh, and as far as book to carry around, I actually have grown rather fond of the Osler Medical Handbook. It's kind of new, so there still a few kinks here and there, but overall, not too bad. It has a nice section on doing procedures, like LPs etc.

 

[retroviridae]

yep I am going to second all the above. I bought IM On Call for my Palm, which was a COMPLETE waste of money. I never used it. I got a free Wash Manual on my first day complements of a drug rep. I did carry that for a month or two, but used it only once or twice for SBP and acute pancreatitis (ahh, I remember how scared I was of pancreatitis ... before: I remember from my texts, such a serious disease .. now: oh, another pancreatitis ... ok "yawn"). I also have the MGH book which is quite good.

BUT ... in reality all I use now is up to date, I also like the UCSF on-line handbook (but use it only rarely). The above poster was right ... the stuff you don't know and want to look up is damn hard to find! Everything else is too simplistic or too detailed to dig through. Medicine is not that hard. You learn by doing a couple times. Really the only things I still fear are ventillators and pleurocentesis (that needle is SO DAMN LONG!!!). One of our best interns dropped a lung the other day. Any how ....