Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2008 (Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment)

I thought this book was very interesting and informative to a pre-med student. I'm not in med schools yet, but love to read about medical related things.

Enough said....... quote "However, this current (2008) edition of CMDT has several chapters (more than the 2007 edition) available only online, AND for the very first time, the online access is $79 extra. "

Didn't like the idea of going back and forth online to book and book to online. Use to be a great book I will not recommend this book to anyone anymore, I am a foreigne medical graduate and use to tell all the graduates coming from abroad to read this book not anymore. I hope the authors are listening.

Having owned many previous editions of this book, I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed by the amount of material that is available only online for a substantial fee (relatively, compared to previous free online content, or even the street price of the print edition). Some of the online information surely could have been incorporated into this edition. Most of the algorithms that appeared in previous editions have been left out, and let's face it folks, most of those haven't changed at all since the 2007, or even the 1997 editions. I am not inclined, however, to grab a bunch of older editions off my bookshelf to find them. A lot of very important basic pharmacology that appeared in older editions has been left out of the 2008 print edition. I don't keep old texts and references on the shelves anyway. I am a D.D.S., M.D. with an undergraduate background in pharmacology, so I picked up on much of the missing stuff right away, just leafing through. Even with the negatives associated with this edition, I will likely buy future editions because there just isn't another reference with this much in a single volume that is as concise and easy to find. I am used to grabbing this book for a quick summary of dx and tx that I don't treat a lot. I do head and neck surgery, and I just don't see patients with Cushing's or Tetralogy of Fallot for cripe's sake! Wading through Harrison's Int. Medicine or a two volume cardiology text is something I am not going to do while a patient is sitting in an exam room waiting for me to reappear. I'll use my CMDT though. One can nitpick on virtually anything that is "new" or "different". So let's be honest, most of us who really use this thing can easily afford the $79 for online access, and most of us who have used a number of previous editions will continue to use CMDT unless it evolves into something totally worthless, and that's just not going to happen.

I purchased the new edition to replace my 2005, which had been destroyed through constant use and my backpack. I was very disappointed to find that the background information in the beginning of most chapters was deleted so that each chapter starts immediately talking about disease. For instance, the nutrition chapter (which is called nutritional disorders in the new edition) cut out 9 pages of background information on nutritional requirements, dietary recommendations, etc. I thought new editions were supposed to improve upon and update previous editions, not cut out crucial information. I would recommend buying an older edition instead of wasting your money on this incomplete one!