Editors: Jeeshan H. Chowdhury and Shaheed Meerani
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
This review and test preparation book for taking the exam to obtain the medical license and qualify for practice in Canada contains more than 700 pages of critical information on the following:
An introduction and overview of what the MCCQE Part I is covered for you in the first chapter, how to use it to your maximum benefit, what are its general objectives (e.g. history-taking and physical exam skills) and the other competencies you as the doctor-to-be have to have in clinical presentations, including but not limited to: data collection, diagnostics, problem-solving, and management strategies in the care of patients
The different aspects of medicine you the new physician must become familiar with are discussed in its second chapter. Here you review issues such as confidentiality, consent, general organization of health care in Canada, what constitutes an incapable patient, negligence, patient access to medical records, professionalism and what it means, regulation of medical practice, research ethics, resource allocation, and last but not the least, truth-telling.
Reviews of knowledge you have acquired in the various specialties in medical school are provided in extremely well-organized and laid out chapters three to twenty-one. You go through what you learned (and retain in your mind for your exam) the information about the following fields within medicine:
- Cardiology and cardiovascular surgery
- Dermatology
- Emergency medicine
- Endocrinology
- Otolaryngology
- Family and community medicine
- Gastroenterology
- General surgery
- Hematology
- Neurology
- Nephrology
- Obstetrics and gynecology
- Oncology
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics and rheumatology
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonary medicine
- Urology
The Appendices section provides you: a table of the normal range of lab values, a list of abbreviations, and a clinical presentation index, respectively in Appendix A, B, and C. A helpful 21-page index at the end of this carefully-written text makes it easy for you to refer to any topic in the book to read up on and review for your exam.
In addition to what is provided within the covers of this essential guide to preparing for the Canadian medical licensing exam, the purchaser of this book is entitled to two valuable online resources: a fully searchable online database, and an interactive question bank with 100 review questions. By scratching off a sticker provided in the inside front of the book and entering the access code online, you will be able use these resources.
The organization and presentation of materials in this book are superb and makes it easy for you, the possibly-nervous exam taker to absorb the information easily. Since the clinical presentations in this book are objectives-based, the material is presented directly with that sensible approach.
The authors make this point very clear: “Each clinical presentation is organized into the categories used by the Objectives that will detail the differential diagnosis, relevant physical exam characteristics and diagnostic tests, treatment and patient consultation techniques, as well as fundamental ASC and relevant C2LEOaspects which require understanding for the qualifying examination candidate.”
Each topic is further broken down into the following subtopics:
- Definition / Rationale
- Causal conditions
- Approach / Management
- Applied Scientific concept
There are numerous study aids in each chapter of this critical text to help you review and retain the material. Some of them are: ASC boxes, C2LEO boxes, charts and tables, clinical boxes, clinical decision-making algorithms, an interactive online question bank, recommended reading lists, and red flags.
Jasheen H. Chowdhury, MD, MSc. and Shaheed Meerani, MD, PhD, along with Aleem M.F. Bharwani, MD, FRCP ( C ) as contributing editor, have put a lot of painstaking effort to gather, organize and carefully present the information contained in this book, which is no less than essential – a must – to prepare for Canada’s medical licensing exam, Part 1. Some 70-plus experts in various specialties contributed much material to make this an important and highly valuable work in medicine. All are to be congratulated for a job well done.
