Respiratory Medicine

Today, the approach to medical education and the current medical curricula is so complex. It is difficult for the medical student to integrate learned concepts from the classroom to clinical practice. Therefore, it is always interesting to find new respiratory medicine book, which can integrate the core sciences, clinical medicine and surgery. The latest textbook by Eureka’s Respiratory Medicine authored by Laura Jane Smith, Jennifer Quint and Jerry Brown, published in March 2015 is an example of one such book.

This book is written with the aim of providing medical students with the knowledge to respiratory medicine from the basics to advance level. The approach is comprehensive from the core science to examining and communicating with patients. The content of -the book reflects today’s medical studies with an emphasis on: relevance and application of core science to clinical practice; the skills required to examine and communicate with patients; integrated care across primary and acute care settings; and would serve as a guideline to respiratory medicine. It contains 13 chapters, which are comprehensive and mostly cover the areas, which every specialist in respiratory medicine is expected to know. It consists of the following: Chapter 1 focuses on the foundation topics of respiratory medicine: anatomy, physiology, and immunology, which is very crucial before taking the next higher step of learning, which are embodied in the in the succeeding chapters; Chapter 2 provides general clinical approaches to patients pertaining investigations and management options available; Chapters 3-11 are the specific respiratory disorders; Chapter 12 covers the principles of immediate care in situations of respiratory emergencies, such as massive pulmonary embolism; and Chapter 13, the integrated care chapter discusses strategies for management of chronic conditions across primary and other care settings, which are usually being missed. The book ended with a self-assessment chapter with an 80 multiple choice questions in clinical school based assessment (SBA) format, which will aid the learner to gauge his/her level of learning and needs.

What keeps this book interesting are the various approaches used to stimulate the interests of the reader. The starter questions in each chapter that highlights the most important concepts continuously stimulate the readers mind and interest, to browse further the next few pages of the book, looking for answers which makes learning fun. There are also boxes highlight tips, tricks, and key learning points set to help the readers remember the salient information. For example, the utilization of unique graphic narratives present a clear explanation of experienced clinicians, which I believe would enable medical student to develop their own clinical judgement and reasoning.

As a general impression, this is a very good book for medical student, clinical practice, and as quick revision. The chapters are very well balanced between different areas of respiratory medicine. The book is very well illustrated and most chapters have very good algorithms on management in different situations. I hope this book would also be available on CD-ROM, as such, good illustrations could also be used for instance, in teaching situations. The integration of both biomedical principles and clinical application in this book makes it an excellent tool for medical students.