We all have grown up on this book figuratively, and literally speaking- ventured through the 14th while looking up to seniors who read the 12th and 13th, snacked on titbits from the 15th( the most extensive edition to date) ravaged the 16th with pencil underlinings and dogs ears and sticky notes, sweaty forearms and contemptuous doodles...and finally here comes the 17th. Waited a long time for this!!
The 16th was probably the one with the most mistakes- 'non caseating granulomas in TB', holy mackerel!!- as also the most monoclonal antibodies. It was a colorful cousin come visiting, but we hoped for short time.The editing left a lot to be desired - GI and immunology had a lot of unnecessary chapters, the cover was unimaginative and the colors looked as if they were splashed all over with childish glee, the mistakes were atrocious, and I still like to have an atlas- it is what makes OTM a pleasure to read when line after line of text get to your rods' nerves.
The 17th will be out March 2008. Priced $199 on Amazon. From what I can see it seems it is packaged as one book.I hope I am wrong, carrying it along will be a pain. And the middle chapters will be a pain to read with print going down into the central gutter.We want to hypertrophy the gyri, not the brachii.
Dr Loscalzo joins the editorial board. That had to be, given that so many of Harrison's authors are from BWH :-)
The promotional video says there's a 40% increase in content. This valuable new collection includes even more great depictions of pathophysiological processes, decision-speeding algorithms,( we never needed an overdose of that guys, least of all for something like osteoarthritis, probably the worst flow chart in the 16th. And the emergency medicine section had hardly any!!There's always Fred Ferri for flowcharts guys. Butt I have to hand it to you on this, endo flowcharts rock!!) clinical photographs, essential radiology images, an atlas of EKG tracings ( thats a great addition), and full color depictions of key pathological specimens( again, I hope this doesn't get too extensive)
There's 40 new chapters- including Health Disparities," "Quality and Safety in Patient Care," "Hospital Neurology," "Electrophysiology in Neurological Diagnosis," "Clinical Management of Obesity," and "Approach to Heart Murmurs" . All good additions I would agree.
There's a new section called regenerative medicine ( fancy name!!) which includes Stem Cell therapy, tissue engineering and the works. This had to come I guess. So they take some tonnage out of the outlandishly heavy on content Genetics chapters.
There are three great additions I feel:
1)Paul Farmer makes his debut in a chapter called Global considerations in medicine. All chapters will have a Global Considerations icon, which identifies important epidemiological, diagnostic, and therapeutic distinctions between global regions to aid in the diagnosis and management of specific diseases. This will help Harry shed the America specific image it is perceived to have, and enter the league of OTM. A big round of applause for this one.
2) The classic Introduction to Clinical Medicine section features new e-chapters addressing Patient Safety and Quality, Ethics in Medicine, and The Economics of Medicine; Health Disparities, and more.
3) Bonus content in a DVD, as eChapters. This includes 37 chapters spanning some 300 pages , 90 videos and include content such as an atlas of CTs and a chapter on radiography of the chest,atlases of renal pathology and urianalysis, neurology, vasculitides among others.
Harry also has taken a leaning to putting factual information into procedural approach with the 'approach to the patient' boxes since the 16th.They push the pedal on this one with extra additions in form of symptom management. I do not know the details, but this is again a welcome addition form an internist's POV.
Fact is Harrison is the most popular medical textbook all over.It is a humongous task for the editors to even attempt to cater to all their reader base. But this edition seems to be a great first step.I look forward to March 2008.
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