Internal Medicine Textbooks

 

Firstly, books used by US medical school students are pretty much different from the rest of the world. My medical school follows the British system, but I am also quite aware of the popular books US medical students use for their medical rotations.

 

 Step 1 : You need a Medical Pocket Book!

 

A pocket book is essential, as you will be spending most of your time in the wards (or you should be). ANd so, you need a small tiny book which you can fit into your pocket, for immediate reference when needed. The MGH Pocket Medicine book is like the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine for the US medical students. You can carry this book all the way, even during Residency. If you belong more to the British style of medical education, get the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. It is also known as the "Cream and Onion" among medical students.

 

 

  Step 2 : You need a Medical Textbook

  
These are the big boys in Internal Medicine. US students don't usually get a medical textbook, unless they are interested to get into internal medicine residency, by which they will get the big daddy in internal medicine : Harrison's. As for the rest of the world, most medical students will purchase a copy of a medical textbook, so that they can highlight it and scribble on it all they want. For them, its always either Davidson's or Most of students use Kumar and Clark, as the content is more complete as compared to Davidson's. However, Davidson's organizes its information more systematically, and is more "user-friendly"

Step 3 : You need a Review Book

 

 

 

 

 

Step-up to Medicine is the BEST review book for Internal Medicine so far. There are others who are Blueprint loyalist who uses the blueprint series. But after going through many medical student forums, I have concluded that Step-Up to Medicine beats the others hands down.

 

 

Step 4 : You need a Case Book 

Case Files is usually the case book used by medical students. It is kinda like the standard. However, I did discover this other case book, known as the NMS casebook, still new and not as popular as Case Files, but I find it really comprehensive in terms of cases, and its cases are divided into proper systems. I personally use both.

Those are the few most common books used by medical students in the Internal Medicine posting. And they are really good, so you do not have to worry that you are buying poor material for your Internal Medicine. What you should worry about, is if you have the time and the discipline to go through the pearls in those books.