Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook Series)

I see a lot of both good and poor reviews for this book. Personally, I like the book a lot. What it has that Ferri's doesn't is evidence-based medicine. Several major studies (PIOPED, and the like) are summarized. Yes, it is someone's notebook in fancy form. But it's cheap, it's small, and it's good. I found that it was too light on details when I was starting out, but once I felt a little more comfortable with my ability to come up with a basic differential, this was the book for me. It was great help for those long medicine write-ups, providing clinical research correlations. Now it is the only book that I carry in my pocket, full of micrographic notes that I have made from lectures, other books, etc. Ferri's isn't exactly pocket-friendly.

As a former Mass General resident, I got a kick out of seeing our humble housestaff manual transformed into a glamorous pocket notebook. And apparently a somewhat controversial transformation, given some of the extremely negative reviews that have been posted. Ignoring the commercial aspects of this debate for a moment, I think the manual contains solid and comprehensive information that should serve any housestaff well (it certainly did for me for 3 years!). It probably does not contain enough explanation for most 3rd and 4th year medical students and, as such, should be used to supplement another manual (such as Washington or Ferri).

This book is the best one to come along in a long while. It is much more succinct and more readily fits in coat pockets than the other manual do. I am a PGY 3 IM resident and use it all the time. It is actually the only book I carry with me.

This small ring bound book is an excellent
resource for the most current diagnostic,prognostic,
and therapeutic information when evaluating many patients
during a limited time frame.Typically, the authors provide references after each subject, to which you can "quote"
to your senior resident or attending or make a dash to
the library, only to return with copies of an up to date journal
article to distribute on rounds while discussing your patient.
One suggestion I offer for improvement would be to include
a brief review of the basic neurological events that we are often
faced with on the wards, such as: CVA (ischemic/thrombotic), seizure,etiologies of dementia/delirium.

Some of these reviews look suspicously from the author himself. A little too glowing to be realistic. This book doesn't offer what's been offered time and time again. Too many people trying to cash in on the fears of young medical students. The best book out there is by Ferri, followed by the Wash Manual. Don't waste your money or time on anything else.