Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination, 8th Edition

By Mark H. Swartz, MD, FACP

ISBN: 9780323672924

Pub Date: April 28th, 2020

Reviewed By: Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)

Description

This textbook on history and physical examination has been published in its eighth edition. The previous edition was published in 2014.

Purpose

Since the first edition, the book’s purpose has been to provide medical students an approach to communicating with patients while performing the history interview and the physical examination in a comprehensive yet concise manner.In all of medicine, learning to speak with the patient in a calm and professional manner is the utmost clinical skill to master as it is the basis for arriving at a differential diagnosis and deciding what ancillary laboratory or imaging studies should be requested. This book presents an outstanding approach to teaching these skills.

Audience

This is primarily a book for medical students. However, in the course of the everyday practice of medicine, clinicians sometimes fall back on shortcuts during the examination. This book is an excellent reminder of the compassionate way to speak with patients and how to perform a complete examination.

Features

The book is divided into six sections and appendixes. The sections are divided into Mastering the Art of Interviewing; Valuing Diversity: Race, Gender and Ethnicity; Understanding the Science of the Physical Examination; Evaluating Specific Patients; Putting the Data to Work; and Analyzing Ethical issues in Clinical Medicine. Each section is divided into chapters, such as Understanding Complementary and Alternative Medicine; individual chapters of the organ systems; The Pregnant Patient; The Geriatric Patient; Precision, Accuracy, and Critical Thinking in Clinical Assessment; and Clinical Ethics and Professionalism. The chapters begin with an orientation such as the historical and general considerations in examining that part of the body, a discussion of the structure and function of that organ, review of the characteristic symptoms, the physical examination, how to use an instrument such as an ophthalmoscope or stethoscope, clinicopathologic correlations, and, finally, how to document the examination. The color photographs are outstanding and extremely illustrative of the examples chosen. Extensive figures and tables significantly summarize the topics. The purchase of the print edition includes a downloadable full-text version through “Inkling,” a web-based platform accessible by computer, tablet, or either Android or iPhone smartphones. The Inkling version also has a number of valuable, very user-friendly functions such as a “Notebook,” in which selected text can be pasted into personal notes by the reader. One may also bookmark areas and subchapters for future reference that make this platform extremely easy to navigate and use. Each chapter has an extensive number of videos available through the Inkling platform that describe the examination detailed in that chapter. The appendixes and bibliography for each chapter are also available in the electronic version.

Assessment

This edition is a tremendous augmentation to the standard approaches to teaching the history and physical examination to medical students. It gives the traditional perspective and greatly improves the educational process by addressing the diversity concepts and the need for professionalism that medical students must keep in mind.

© Doody’s Review Service, 2020, Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences) Review Score: 100-5 Stars!

Purchase Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination, 8th Edition here!