Books for IM

[IMMD]

My most helpful find to date on actual pocket guides: I've been using Most Common Inpatient Problems In Internal Medicine: Ward Survival by John Sun.

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[tkim]

If you want to advertise, buying Google adsense time works. Otherwise we ban and block.

 

[Arsenic]

hey guys, i merged the 3-4 threads that were on page 1 asking about IM books with the official "Books for IM" thread, ie this one. Makes it easier for future students to find all the info in 1 place rather than in bits and pieces.

I also re-opened the poll in this thread, feel free to vote now on what book you thought was most helpful for IM.

 

[butterfly0660]

Some of the attendings at my school have just put together a book called "First exposure to hospital medicine" or something like that. I haven't seen the entire book, but I have a lot of the chapters and they are amazing. Very concise and well written, with just the right amount of things to know. I am a 4th year, and not doing medicine, but I am getting ready to buy the book just to have as a reference. Its that good. I highly recommend at least taking a look at it, to see if it is the kind of book you are looking for...I personally had a very hard time finding a book for medicine that wasn't too in-depth or too condensed.

 

[Jaysun]

Being new to the site, I thought I would start off by adding my 2 cents into this thread. My favorite books for 3rd year (of which I am currently completing) are:

Pathophysiology of Disease: An Introduction to Clinical Medicine
I realize that this may seem more of a 2nd year text - but its great to have small chapters that go over the physiology and pathology of the major diseases. And done so well too!!! Its easy reading.

The Consult Manual of Internal Medicine
Most of the class has ended up switching to this book simply by word of mouth. Again, great pathophysiology with nice format making it easy to either look something up quickly or read about a topic in depth. Very nice pharm sections are a definate plus for a handbook.

Pocket Medicine
A great quick reference for the wards. It main drawback is that it isore of a review than a learning tool... but functions nicely in that role.

The ABX Guide: Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious disease
Dont get me wrong in that Sanford is the absolute king on the wards. But this is a nice gem of a book which goes along with the website put up by Hopkins ID group. You can access the site on the wards rather than carry the book - but the book is great for a quick review.

Anyhoo... thats my 2 cents. Take it easy.

 

[TheFlash]

I'm gonna have to throw my hat in for Step-Up to Medicine. I essentially used this as my one and only text for medicine (supplemented with my annotated First Aid for Step I for pathophys stuff that was a bit weak), and then used MKSAP and Kaplan Step 2 Qbook for questsion sources. Through the course of my 12 week IM rotation I read through Step-Up twice and was doing MKSAP from the beginning. If I had better study habits, I could've made it through Step-Up for a third time. I didn't use Cecil's or Harrison's or any of that crap. I had a Pocket Medicine in my white coat, but I may have used it all of twice during my rotation.

In the end, I demolished the shelf and I regularly got "outstanding fund of knowledge" on my evals primarily because I was faithful to Step-Up. It's solid gold! I would recommend it to ANYone who's starting IM, regardless of whether you learn better from "review books" or not.

 

[uthopeful]

How was kaplan Q book for the IM shelf. I have done mksap 3 and was debating whether to do mksap2 or kaplan q book, mksap 2 actually has a fair number of different questions and concepts than mksap 3. Thanks

 

[winstonm]

Internal Medicine Essentials 2007 for Clerkship Students

I believe it's published by the same people who do MKSAP, and it's supposed to cover the core IM content, but after a quick glance it seemed a bit wordy yet basic. Any thoughts?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I'm gonna have to throw my hat in for Step-Up to Medicine. I essentially used this as my one and only text for medicine (supplemented with my annotated First Aid for Step I for pathophys stuff that was a bit weak), and then used MKSAP and Kaplan Step 2 Qbook for questsion sources. Through the course of my 12 week IM rotation I read through Step-Up twice and was doing MKSAP from the beginning. If I had better study habits, I could've made it through Step-Up for a third time. I didn't use Cecil's or Harrison's or any of that crap. I had a Pocket Medicine in my white coat, but I may have used it all of twice during my rotation.

In the end, I demolished the shelf and I regularly got "outstanding fund of knowledge" on my evals primarily because I was faithful to Step-Up. It's solid gold! I would recommend it to ANYone who's starting IM, regardless of whether you learn better from "review books" or not.

Agreed. I used a similar approach and did well on our Medicine exam (we don't use shelf exams) and got "fund of knowledge well beyond students at his level" on my evaluation. That and constant praises by the attending and chief for knowing my ****.

Moral of the story: Step Up to Medicine is EXCEPTIONAL. Honestly, every M3/M4 should read that book cover to cover. It's probably one of the best "review" books out in the market for the clinical years. I've even heard of some attendings recommending it as a must read for the Medicine rotation. And we all know how much attendings love review books..

 

[jmcappleby]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wanted to ask a question regarding question sources.

Seems like MKSAP (by now #4 is out) is a well-regarded book with regards to practice questions for the IM rotation / Shelf. How about a UW subscription?

I was considering getting a year-long UW Step 2 CK subscription for use during my third year with each of my core rotations and their respective shelves and wrapping up the year with the Step 2. So I would ultimately go through the questions twice - once during the rotation, once after a reset for Step 2 study. Is this a good idea? If so, is MKSAP still worth getting?

Thanks!

 

[TopsyKrett]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wanted to ask a question regarding question sources.

Seems like MKSAP (by now #4 is out) is a well-regarded book with regards to practice questions for the IM rotation / Shelf. How about a UW subscription?

I was considering getting a year-long UW Step 2 CK subscription for use during my third year with each of my core rotations and their respective shelves and wrapping up the year with the Step 2. So I would ultimately go through the questions twice - once during the rotation, once after a reset for Step 2 study. Is this a good idea? If so, is MKSAP still worth getting?

Thanks!

What is everyone using now for IM books?

 

[matthew0809]

bump

 

[syncrhodes]

What is everyone using now for IM books?

UCSF Hospitalist Handbook, hands down, is the best step-by-step guidance for the medicine inpatient wards.
Basically whenever I had a patient, I would look up the diagnosis and management steps as outlined in the Hospitalist Handbook. It gives way more step-by-step details than the Red/Green book. All the residents would be surprised at how much practical (not esoteric and irrelevant) diagnostic and management steps I'd have in my presentations. They thought I was a genius...(and I wasn't too keen on letting them know where most of that genius was coming from

Hardcopy version at UCSF's main website.
Free but super old website version (2002) on google.
Updated version for iPhone and Android through the AgileMD free platform.