Intro to Clinical Medicine book?

[Ramoray]

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I was wondering if all med schools take clinical medicine classes 2nd year or how it works. My school is pretty much all clinical medicine 2nd year and path. I was wondering what books people use for ICM, Harrisons looks like a great book but i have also heard Cecils is required. I am wondering what book is better? Also are these classes good for board prep, the clinical med. ones i mean? thanks!

 

[pikachu]

At my school, the intro to clinical medicine course is about learning how to do histories and physicals. if this is the case at your school as well, then Bates's Physical Diagnosis book is excellent. In terms of a clinical reference book Harrison's goes into much more detail than Cecil's so it depends if you're looking for a quick reference or an encyclopedic reference book. (Keep in mind that both these books cover internal medicine only.) Personally I felt that Cecil's did not provide enough detail. Neither one of these books would be appropriate for board prep in my opinion.

 

[cheech10]

Don't get Harrisons. It's good as a reference (although articles/UpToDate are better/more current) but it's impossible to read cover to cover. It's also available online (check to see if your school has a subscription) so you can just use that as a reference. Cecils Textbook of Medicine has the same problem, but it's a bit shorter. Cecils Essentials of Medicine is much shorter and is actually readable, but it does skimp a bit. Try Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, which is updated yearly and has a reasonable amount of detail, but also provides crammable bullet points for each disease. It should be about right for an ICM course.

 

[Mumpu]

Harrisons is unreadable. Bates is unreadable. Don't know about Cecil -- I learned mostly through my patients, with consults from Ferri's and UpToDate (which does a good job of covering physical exam, actually).

 

[Jaded Soul]

Cecils Essentials of Medicine is much shorter and is actually readable, but it does skimp a bit.

Cecil's Essentials is a worthless paperweight. It doesn't have enough detail to be a reference book, but it's not concise enough to be a helpful overview.