Author: Theodore X. O’Connell, MD
Publisher: Elsevier Saunders – 360 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
At the beginning of this book, before the Contents, the author presents a section with 71 photos of patients and microscopic images of various diseases and medical conditions that all aspiring doctors need to know about. Pictures, much of the time, show things that cannot be easily relayed with words, because words for such descriptions do not even exist. This is one of the best and most efficient ways of teaching.
This book demonstrates many other effective and time-saving means of showing students how to prepare for the exam that is essentially one of the several important milestones on the road to becoming a licensed physician in the United States.
Dr. O’Connell has authored several review books as well as clinical reference texts, and in this book which presents answers to essential questions found in the Step 2 portion of United States Medical Licensing Exam.
This compact and handy lab coat pocket-sized guide is a highly useful tool which informs you the exam taker, what you need to know to score well in the USMLE Step 2, including:
- All specialty and subspecialty topics
- Key conditions you will be expected to recognize
- Necessary clinical concepts
One of the most useful sections of this study guide is the Top 100 Secrets, which provides you with key facts on disorders ranging from alcoholic hepatitis and anaphylaxis to bitemporal hemianopsia and bitot spots to uterine atony and uveitis to Virchow triad and viral rhinitis, and many others in between.
Here are some other useful benefits you can derive from the use of this book:
- Learn the most important questions you will be asked in the USMLE Step 2 test and their answers
- Get the most current overview of board-tested content
- Review material quickly and easily, with bulleted lists, valuable charts, detailed illustrations, clear and precise four-color clinical and pathologic images
- Apply memory aids, practical tips and secrets gathered by Dr. Connell
- Refer instantly to 40 alphabetically arranged chapters on specialties ranging from Acid Base and Electrolytes to Vitamins and Minerals
To give you an overview of the contents of this guide, these are subjects covered in it:
- Acid Base and Electrolytes; Alcohol; Biostatistics; Cardiology; Cholesterol; Dermatology; Diabetes Mellitus; Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery; Emergency Medicine; Endocrinology; Ethics; Gastroenterology; General Surgery; Genetics; Geriatrics; Gynecology;
- Hematology; Hypertension; Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Laboratory Medicine; Nephrology; Neurology; Neurosurgery; Obstetrics; Oncology; Ophthalmology; Orthopedic Surgery; Pediatrics; Pharmacology, Preventive Medicine. Psychiatry; Pulmonology; Radiology; Rheumatology; Shock; Smoking; Urology; Vascular Surgery; and Vitamins and Minerals.
Theodore X. O’Connell, MD is Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at Kaiser Permanente in Napa-Solano, California; Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine; and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles.
