Franklin Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics Springboard Module

Rating:
Summary: Get the spiral bound version and Save your money for rent
Review: The Washington Manual has been a favorite of medical students and house officers since it was first published in 1943. It was designed as a portable reference, providing information of the diagnosis and treatment of common medical problems. Franklin Electronic Publishers have now condensed all 600+ pages of the original text into a 1.3 MB program for the Palm.

For those lovers of the Washington Manual, this is a fairly easy-to-use adaptation of the book for the Palm. I find the pocket palm to be the most useful in looking up short blurbs on topics; this was accomplished easily and quickly in the Index screen by using either the Look-Up function or the Search function. The Search function even contained a Spelling Corrector; my constant misspelling of "arrythmia" was caught and returned with the option of correcting to "arrhythmia", while also suggesting "erythema" or "arthritic". In addition, there are footnote references that are easily accessible within the text at the click of a button, and a handy cross-referencing button which automatically shifts you to other related sections within the book.

Nevertheless, I still have reservations about the presentation of information within the confines of the small Palm screen. The outline format of the Washington Manual can be extremely disorienting; it is hard to see the larger context of a problem when you are directed to section III.A.4.e after a Search Function. In the paper version of the book, it would be easy to scan or flip a few pages back to see what were the topics for Subheading 4 or Part A or Section III. However, this format falls flat combined with the small amount of text that can be visualized on a Palm screen.

It is also important to note that the Washington Manual is very different in content than many of the other Palm-based reference books available to medical students. First of all, the manual is geared for in-patient medicine and therefore does not have information on some basic outpatient diseases such as otitis media or depression. Also, the manual has a strong emphasis on diagnosis and treatment, providing detailed information on what labs to draw and which studies to perform. However this is focused upon almost to the exclusion of pathophysiology and differential diagnoses. Yet it is these latter topics that are often what medical students most cherish from handbooks. As such, I believe the Washington Manual is better suited for residents and house officers. Nevertheless, this was always my objection to the Washington Manual; it is not confined to just this Palm version.

So, as a cash-strapped health professional student, should you spend the money on this Palm version of Washington Manual? (dollar amount) bucks is a lot of money. Especially when you can buy the printed spiral-bound version of the manual for half the price on Amazon.com. My advice? Unless you are a Washington Manual fanatic, save your money for rent.

Rating:
Summary: Get the spiral bound version and Save your money for rent
Review: The Washington Manual has been a favorite of medical students and house officers since it was first published in 1943. It was designed as a portable reference, providing information of the diagnosis and treatment of common medical problems. Franklin Electronic Publishers have now condensed all 600+ pages of the original text into a 1.3 MB program for the Palm.

For those lovers of the Washington Manual, this is a fairly easy-to-use adaptation of the book for the Palm. I find the pocket palm to be the most useful in looking up short blurbs on topics; this was accomplished easily and quickly in the Index screen by using either the Look-Up function or the Search function. The Search function even contained a Spelling Corrector; my constant misspelling of "arrythmia" was caught and returned with the option of correcting to "arrhythmia", while also suggesting "erythema" or "arthritic". In addition, there are footnote references that are easily accessible within the text at the click of a button, and a handy cross-referencing button which automatically shifts you to other related sections within the book.

Nevertheless, I still have reservations about the presentation of information within the confines of the small Palm screen. The outline format of the Washington Manual can be extremely disorienting; it is hard to see the larger context of a problem when you are directed to section III.A.4.e after a Search Function. In the paper version of the book, it would be easy to scan or flip a few pages back to see what were the topics for Subheading 4 or Part A or Section III. However, this format falls flat combined with the small amount of text that can be visualized on a Palm screen.

It is also important to note that the Washington Manual is very different in content than many of the other Palm-based reference books available to medical students. First of all, the manual is geared for in-patient medicine and therefore does not have information on some basic outpatient diseases such as otitis media or depression. Also, the manual has a strong emphasis on diagnosis and treatment, providing detailed information on what labs to draw and which studies to perform. However this is focused upon almost to the exclusion of pathophysiology and differential diagnoses. Yet it is these latter topics that are often what medical students most cherish from handbooks. As such, I believe the Washington Manual is better suited for residents and house officers. Nevertheless, this was always my objection to the Washington Manual; it is not confined to just this Palm version.

So, as a cash-strapped health professional student, should you spend the money on this Palm version of Washington Manual? (dollar amount) bucks is a lot of money. Especially when you can buy the printed spiral-bound version of the manual for half the price on Amazon.com. My advice? Unless you are a Washington Manual fanatic, save your money for rent.