This text aims to distill the oral teaching rounds-based approaches to clinical diagnosis of common pediatric programs that is used in the training programs of many children's hospitals and pediatric residency training programs. Professors of pediatrics Kliegman, Greenbaum, and Lye (all of the Medical College of Wisconsin) describe the diagnosis process, emphasizing the history, guided by the chief complaint, and the physical examination guided by clues from the history, with lab studies used to support rather than make the diagnosis. Structuring their text around this model, they offer 62 chapters on respiratory, cardiac, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, developmental/psychiatric, neurosensory, orthopedic, hematologic, infectious, and endocrine/metabolic disorders. Annotation ยฉ2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Robert P. Drucker
This book provides a different approach to the study of diseases in children. Each chapter focuses on a common chief complaint, and the text guides the reader through a differential diagnosis. The purpose is to mimic the verbal patient-based teaching rounds in academic training centers. This ambitious goal complements rather than competes with the standard textbooks of pediatrics. In addition, there are timely chapters on clinical decision making and understanding the importance of cultural beliefs and behaviors. In general, the book meets its objective, although there is large variability between chapters. Written primarily for residents in pediatrics and family medicine, the book will also benefit medical students as they learn about childhood problems. There are 84 contributors, with a wide range of expertise in their fields. There are many tables and figures throughout the book providing lists of differential diagnoses, flow charts for management, or illustrations of diseases. Occasionally, the number of tables can be such that it is difficult to find the accompanying text several pages away. The references included at the end of each chapter are relevant, helpful, and appropriately limited in number. This is a difficult book to index, because a particular disease entity may be found in many differential diagnoses, but a full discussion only appears once. Residents and students will find the approach of this book a helpful addition to other reference materials. It provides a framework for working through patient problems, not final diagnoses. In addition, the use of evidence-based discussions build a foundation for existence in the rapidly emerging managed careenvironment.