Book Description

This unique text offers a systematic and practical approach to the analysis and interpretation of FCM graphics. Using numerous FCM illustrations derived from actual well-documented clinical cases, the authors demonstrate a step-by-step approach to optimal FCM data analysis on specimens suspected of harboring hematopoietic malignancies. The discussion moves from simple to complex specimens, with an emphasis on visual pattern analysis. A wide variety of hematologic disorders are covered, including leukemias and lymphomas. The companion CD-ROM with 80 detailed case studies provides additional opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of FCM data analysis. ... Read more

Book Description

This undergraduate, upper-division text focuses on the biology of human parasites, and bridges the gap between classic clinical parasitology texts and more traditional encyclopedic treatises. Human Parasitology, Second Edition introduces various parasites and how they interact with their hosts and respond to new treatments. It presents symptomatic treatments of important parasitic organisms. The book also includes appendices dealing with various drugs and their efficacy with respect to treatment.
This thoroughly updated edition contains a new chapter on opportunistic parasites that effect AIDS patients, and provides new research into emerging parasites such as Crytosporidium and Cyclopspora. The Second Edition includes more electronmicrographs, better life cycle figures, and thoroughly revised citations.

* Thoroughly revised, updated, and illustrated
* New chapter on opportunistic parasites that afflict immuno-compromised (AIDS) patients
* Additional coverage on Crytosporidium and Cyclopspora
* Updated and revised chemotherapeutic regimens ... Read more

Reviews (1)

CONCISE; WITH A WIDE PARASITOLOGY SCOPE
This "Human Parasitology" text provides a balanced introductory view, as it concerned the interactive association between various parasites and their hosts. Its concise and reader-friendly format is a big plus: as it ensured that anyone who reads it will understand the message.
This book is clinically relevant. Its carefully selected contents were designed in such a way that will appeal to students of Zoology, Medicine, Veterinary medicine, Microbiology, Medical laboratory science, and Agriculture.
Discussed in details are various intestinal parasites like: Nematodes, Cestodes, and Trematodes. It also took care of many pathogenic protozoa like: Plasmodium and Entamoeba species. And, there are well-written chapters, which thoroughly analyzed both the Laboratory Diagnosis of Parasitic Diseases and the capabilities of various Antiparasitic Agents. ... Read more

Book Description

Written by active scientists, this book provides readers with a logical framework for conducting modern biochemical and molecular biology research. The authors write with passion, and their love of biochemical research shines through on every page. ... Read more

Book Description

This excellent book is the definitive work on an old but still evolving concept. . . . What impressed me most about the book is that the authors practice what they preach. The reader is treated the same way that the authors exhort us to treat our patients--with respect, tolerance, understanding, and caring."

--Canadian Medical Association

"This book is a concise description of a patient-centered model of patient communication, written for clinicians, educators, and researchers. There are six key elements in the authors'' model, each of which is illustrated by one or more clinical vignettes. The purpose is to describe and explore a model of physician-patient communication that emphasizes patients'' needs rather than the traditional medical model, for the purpose of education and research on patient-centered medicine. The authors clearly achieve the objective of describing and explaining their model."

--Doody’s Health Sciences Book Review Journal

"This book provides an excellent discussion of many of the issues related to patient-centered medicine. The authors outline the six interacting components, which are the assessment of disease and illness; the integration of that assessment with the understanding of the whole person finding common ground between the doctor and the patient; using each visit as an opportunity to build on the relationship; prevention and promotion; and throughout the process being realistic concerning the time, resources and energy needed. . . . Because occupational therapists work as members of a multidisciplinary team, this text is an excellent overview and discussion of the position of another discipline on issues related to patient-centered practice. As such, it broadens our understanding of the implications of applying this approach."

--British Journal of Occupational Therapy

The evolution of attitudes and roles in society are reflected in many facets of our lives. In the medical community, these changes are most evident in the shifting relationship between doctor and patient. Confronted with the demand for more egalitarian approaches to health care, physicians may find themselves ill prepared to accept--and participate in--this redefinition of traditional medical practice. In Patient-Centered Medicine, the authors present a six-component model to assist health practitioners in expanding and strengthening their relationships with patients. Thoughtful discussions present topics as diverse as conceptualizations of ill-health; consideration of the patient as an individual; the establishment of goals and cooperative strategy between physician and patient; and the realistic allocation of time, energy, and other resources of the health care provider. Emphasizing a holistic philosophy, the work encourages physicians to surpass treatment based strictly on a one-dimensional, biomedical assessment of their patients--and thus achieve greater results.

Professionals and advanced students in all health care fields will appreciate this illuminating and provocative volume.

Book Description

This comprehensive, up-to-date, readable text acts as a complete clinical chemistry course and professional reference, providing detailed, specific information on the principles of clinical chemistry in laboratory diagnosis as well as the pathophysiologic changes that occur in disease and affect testing outcomes. Explanations of Laboratory Techniques (Part 1) lead the reader through various necessary laboratory techniques and practices. Chapters on Pathophysiology (Part 2) provide descriptions of how specific diseases affect the human body. A companion CD-ROM packaged with the book features Methods of Analysis, a comprehensive Urinalysis Manual, and an interactive Study Guide/Workbook to reinforce concepts. The book's clear writing and comprehensive coverage make it an ideal resource for both students and practitioners. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A really great companion.
It would had been great to have this textbook with me while in my school years. It is always a delight to consult Kaplan's text, since it covers most of the lab issues with enough depth. The illustrations are not colored, but they are still pedagogic. Also, the text is enriched with lots of tables that I have found really useful. Besides this new edition is accompanied with a CD (which to be honest I haven't explore deeply). My opinion is that of a professional which has had to reference by work demands, I'm no student, but as I said before this would have made a great companion. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Good fast review of Pathophys. 4 days before exam!
As I said, 2day I passed my Pathophys exam due to this book. It's really good and made me understand sooooo many principles that i've never understood before. That's a really good one but i give it a 4/5 rating cause the book is quite expensive.

don't over estimate this book
This book isn't for medical students, isn't for nursing student but should be good for a high school student wanting to learn about pathology.

Packed with specific, realistic, useful information.
A friend at work showed me this book, delighted with it. The first time I looked at it, I learned a "sign" I had never heard of before. With almost fifteen years' full-time experience on stepdown units, and a fascination with anatomy and physiology, I was not expecting to learn as many new things as I have from this book. The format is engaging, and almost begs people to pick it up and browse. It is a terrific home resource, and even better to leave lying around at the hospital. I have checked a number of on-line book sites and this book is not discounted anywhere. I think it's worth the price.

A Good General Review of Pathophysiology.
Pathophysiology Made Incredibly Easy is a good general review for students.

Each chapter begins with major points concerning the topic being discussed (eg. genetics or cardiovascular system) and then breaks down into specific disorders/conditions.

Explanation boxes appear throughout the chapters highlighting special points or ideas. Each chapter closes with a "Quick Quiz" to reinforce concepts.

The book uses simple language to explain complex ideas. Little reminders in the margins point out important things to remember.

I would recommend this book to anyone taking patho who is strugling with the basic concepts. ... Read more

Book Description

This handbook of valuable information extracted from laboratory manuals published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is presented in an easy-to-use format.It contains invaluable reference data, never before assembled in one handy package.It has been assembled from extensively field-tested manuals, ensuring accuracy and reliability, by two scientists with extensive and diverse experience of laboratory practice. ... Read more

Book Description

Wise, light-hearted, but thoroughly practical, Dr. Barker offers advice, moral support, social etiquette, and professional reassurance along with assume-nothing, step-by-step instructions for those basic but vital laboratory procedures that experienced investigators know—but may not realize novices don’t.If you are a graduate student, a physician with research intentions, or a laboratory technician, this book is indispensable. If you have to manage or mentor such people, giving a copy to each of them will greatly improve your life, and theirs. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Don't Waste Your Money
As a 5th year graduate student with extensive lab research experience at a well known reputatable school in New York City, I would not recommend in purchasing this book. It was in fact being given out for free to new incoming graduate students a few years ago at my school, a practice which since has been terminated due to a general consensus from the student body revealing a lack utility in the book. I actually told one of my colleges to "burn this book" because I felt that much of the information was actually detrimental to one's graduate school career. A main concern about the book was that many of the so-called standard protocols were outdated and eclipsed by the fact that in terms of practice, many research labs have their own adaptations of protocols (for good reason) which are proven better than the generic protocols listed in the book. You see...it is not good in science to hold steadfast to rigid ways, and in contrast one needs to adapt to the new social and academic climate. It is a time of flexibility and novel creative thinking. The face of science is finally changing, and it should rightly do so. This leads me to my second beef about this book. The introduction focuses mainly on "lab etiquette". I find that the ideals brought fourth by the book come from out-of-date "old school" principles and functions to brainwash the naive young researcher into life-long scientific servitude. This book only serves to perpectuate negative stereotypes of scientists in society as lacklustre dorks who do nothing but devote their life to research. Many scientists are like this...and you wonder why. The bottomn line is that I would not recommend this book to a graduate student, and not even to an undergraduate science student, unless you can find it used...and perhaps slightly singed around the edges.

lab skills, and people skills too
As other reviewers have already said, this is a wonderful book for navigating the laboratory, especially if you are like me, and have only a little lab experience. It covers everything from basic sterile technique and media-making to working with antibodies and radioactive materials.

At least as helpful as the introduction to lab skills is the introduction to people skills and proper lab etiquette. This book contains some invaluable resources for getting good work done, working well with others, and not stepping on anyone's toes in the process. Given how opaque lab society can sometimes be for newcomers, this is a wonderful resource.

While this book may a bit on the pricey side, it makes a great reference, and is sturdy enough to be lent out to colleagues, assistants, stuedents and new hires time and time again.

Must get
Describes in detail the world of a life science researcher. This is a book you'll want to buy in order to read, and re-read again. Many of the pages are of reference quality such that you'll want to consult again and again. Especially useful for students with little or no prior experience in a life science research lab.

indispensable lab resource
This is a wonderful resource for any lab that has rotating personnel. Often, experienced researchers don't have the time or interest to orient new people but it's all here, and I would be surprised if even an experienced scientist could read through this whole manual without finding useful information.

The author uses common sense and a casual style, and assumes that the reader knows nothing. Early chapters explore BASIC basics, like getting along with colleagues, getting started the first week, questions to ask, and safety procedures; lab setup and equipment; and organization. Later chapters discuss designing and setting up experiments, using a lab notebook, presenting data, making reagents, including storage and disposal, and working in a sterile environment. Final chapters detail work with eukaryotic cell cultures, bacteria, dna/rna/protein, radioactivity, centrifugation, electrophoresis and a light microscope. Along the way, the reader will learn how to format a journal article, work in a hood, or stay in touch with the PI. The only thing missing is library research, but since this is a bench guide that seems a forgivable omission.

Spiral bound and formatted for easy access and understandability, the volume concludes with a glossary and a good index. Black and white line drawings and pictures identify items found in labs and illustrate techniques from pipetting to making entries in a notebook.

This is not a textbook written by someone who's never worked in a laboratory; it is a sensible, intelligent guide -- the dream tour you'd like to have each of your technicians or students given if you only had the time! Also handy if a person is having problems and you want to refer them to written material. Any working lab could benefit from the addition of this volume. Fabulous.

Wow.
This collection of information is impressive. It guides the novice worker in the biosciences through basic protocols, explains the bits and pieces of the laboratory, and provides assistance on staying organized and publishing. Well done! ... Read more

Book Description

New edition of a pocket-sized quick-reference for medical students and residents to interpreting clinical laboratory data. Previous edition 1984. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Great Book, Excellent Seller
I ordered this book through Amazon, but Amazon only processes the order. Dr. Bakerman actually receives the money and sends the book. I am happy to say that there was a problem with my order but Dr. Bakerman went out of his way to fix it. I recommend this book to anyone and also feel confident that you can trust Dr. Bakerman.

There's a new edition for this excellent book!
This book goes beyond a "lab" book, encompassing etiologies, algorithms on further evaluation, and pathophysiology. Inside you can find, for example, the incidence of neonatal conjunctivitis in mothers with chylamydial infections, clinical features of primary biliary cirrhosis, and diagrams of the red blood cell reactions in indirect vs direct Coombs reactions. I first bought this book as a medical student when I spent over an hour doing a lit search on immunoglobulins and the intern found a better answer the next day in one second by opening this book. Definitely worth the purchase price! There is a 2002 version of this book and it includes reference articles after each lab test entry. P.S. Now exists in a PDA version, too.

A great book but needs update.
This is with no doubt a great book. However, it has not been updated for 8 years. While carrying it everyday, I found its usefullness weaning. I tried to call the publisher to query the plan of a new edition, but got only an answering maching and no reply was offered for 2 mo now. Well it is still a good book but not for up-to-date clinicians any more.

I like this book more than girls....
and spend more time with it also, unfortunately. Far and away the single most useful book for third year clerkships. This, Sabatini's "Pocket Medicine" and the Wash U "Intern Survival Guide" are the only three books you need to answer ANY question, work up ANY problem, and interpret ANY test. Save your back, lighten your coat.

The best lab book!
As a Physician Assistant student I have searched several bookstores for a good lab studies book. My search finally ended when I found Bakerman's ABC's. There is no other lab book I have seen which can compare with Bakerman's. I take this lab book on every rotation, and which that I had found it sooner for my didactic training. ... Read more

Book Description

This comprehensive workbook companion to Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods is designed to help pathology residents prepare for their board certification exams. It covers information that is likely to appear on the boards and that will also prove useful for day-to-day reference in the post-qualification years. Using a parallel organization to Dr. Henry's classic textbook, the workbook presents concise, bullet-point summaries of every important concept, as well as more than 1,320 review questions and answers, word association drills, image interpretation exercises, and a mathematical formula exam to challenge users' mastery of the material. * Accompanies the most authoritative reference book in clinical and laboratory pathology, Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. * Presents concise, bullet-point summaries of all essential information in 7 key areas: The Clinical Laboratory · Clinical Chemistry · Urine and!Other Body Fluids · Hematology, Coagulation and Transfusion Medicine · Immunology and Immunopathology · Medical Microbiology · and Molecular Pathology. * Offers more than 1,320 multiple-choice test questions and answers to evaluate readers' knowledge. * Provides extensive practice in using the mathematical formulas needed in hematology, blood banking, and chemistry. * Includes a comprehensive picture identification segment to mimic the Kodachrome Simulation Examination part of the board exam, with 40 multiple-choice questions and answers based on color images. ... Read more

Book Description

Highly acclaimed and considered the leading reference in the field, Pathology of Melanocytic Nevi and Malignant Melanoma has now been fully revised and updated to accomodate rapid advances in the field of melanoma pathology. Drs. Michael Piepkorn and Klaus Busam have now joined Dr. Barnhill, world-renowned expert in dermatology and pathology, to expand the text with new sections on the genetics and cytogenetics of melanoma,sentinal lymph node biopsy, the new AJCC TNM staging system for melanoma, the mechanisms of melanoma metastasis. The successful focus and format of the first edition have been preserved. Each lesion and diagnosis is clearly illustrated, now with more than 340 new, digitally enhanced full-color photomicrographs and over 125 tables. A corresponding precis, or concise description of the clinical features, histopathology, differential diagnosis, and outstanding characteristics of each lesion provides readers with a quick yet comprehensive overview of each topic covered. With the inclusion of recent advances in cancer research and new techniques, the second edition of Pathology of Melanocytic Nevi and Malignant Melanoma is the essential reference for every practicing dermatopathologist, pathologist, dermatologist, and cancer research scientist today. ... Read more

Book Description

Now available from Waveland Press, this highly regarded compilation of therapy excerpts addresses the practical difficulties and issues involved in talking to clients in distress. The authors include contributions from faculty trainers and advanced therapists-in-training who share the insights, perspectives, and challenges they have faced in a way easily understood by fellow students. Readers will enjoy the conversational, collegial and direct writing style offered in Basics of Clinical Practice as they study the models of various methods of meeting therapeutic challenges. Tables are offered throughout chapters to summarize pertinent material. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent Peripheral Blood Morphology Reference Book
This is an excellent reference book for those learning to evaluate peripheral blood smears. There are sections for each cell type that focus on morphological characteristics of each maturational stage utilizing written characteristics, photomicrographs and an illustrated line drawing that labels all of the distinguishing features. This is invaluable for the learner. There are also separate sections on comparative morphology, enabling the learner to distinguish cell types that are similar (blasts vs reactive lymphs for example). Examples of many RBC and PLT morphological variants are also noted.

I have used this book extensively for training of Clinical Laboratory Scientists and Pathology Residents, and recommend it highly.

Excellent resource and instructional tool
This is one of the finest atlases of peripheral blood cells I've ever seen. The photomicrographs are clear and definitive and the verbal and visual comparisons to aid in differentiation are excellent. Well organized and easy to find what you are looking for. Because the author used actual photomicrographs rather than drawings, she put this atlas head and shoulders above the competition.

A Complete atlas of blood cells, A MUST!!
An outstanding book for differentiating between cell morophology in the maturation cycle. For Hematologist that read manual diffs. its a must!! ... Read more

Book Description

The Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, takingmillion lives. And yet, most of what we know about it is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren -- the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the awful end by respiratory failure -- are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was and how it made history remain shrouded in a haze of myths.

Now, Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and groundbreaking historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death as a gripping, intimate narrative.

Reviews (116)

a waste of time and misleading, read Tuchman instead
As a European history teacher, I hoped that I would get some tidbits from this for my class and for my own edification. I found neither. I have trouble imagining that this writer is actually a Medieval scholar. I suspect he is suffering from Alzheimers. He has the reverence for facts of Ronald Reagan, among other dopey innacuracies: the end of the Roman empire is put two centuries late, the Romans he says had been fending off the Arabs for millennia (even though the Roman empire existed for less than one millennia), the plague came from Africa-it clearly came from East Asia. Further the writing style is terrible. It is nearly unreadable. There is constant repetition, bizarre and awkward phrases "biomedical disaster" and no structure. Each chapter wanders around without a thesis, repeats earlier chapters and makes pathetic attempts to tie in to recent events. There are also a huge number of ridiculous theories (plague was from outer space, without the plague the scientific revolution would have come centuries earlier, etc.) which Cantor badly explains and then doesn't critically evaluate. They might be true, he muses, without looking at any facts.
I suspect that this was cobbled together from hastily written lecture notes for an introductory history class for brain dead undergraduates without the editing that it desperately needs. Don't waste your time on this, there is almost nothing to learn here.
Instead read Barbara Tuchman's long, but fully researched and wonderfully detailed book: A Distant Mirror about the 14th century. It has a very powerful chapter on the plague and gives a real sense of Medieval life.

Medieval-like writing
Dr. Cantor is a medievalist, and writes in the style of his subjects: very rambling, with a tendency to ramify tediously so he can talk at length about what he finds interesting, whether or not it is relevant. Some good information, some mistakes even a non-scholar reader like me could spot. Not a lot about the plague. Some peculiar theories. What seems to me a misapplication of 20th-century terminology to 14th-century groups (for instance, what sounds like raiders or harriers, he calls terrorists).

Easy read, if somewhat jumbled
I bought this book at the airport in Boston and found it appropriate as an "airport book." On a late night flight, it was entertaining but not intense. Nor was it well organized. The end of the book abruptly stops with comments about Chaucer rather than a summing up of the main thesis. One gets the impression of an erudite academician, late in life, with lots to say but very little energy to say it in an organized way. Some of the errors are obvious, even to someone with only surface knowledge of the period. For example, he states somewhere in the book that Constantinople fell in the 14th century rather than in 1453. But for all that .. it is a quick read and can be considered as something like a "bathroom reader" -- full of interesting tid bits but without much of a unifying thread. His earlier books were much better organized. Maybe he just needs to take a vacation. I'd recommend it as a airplane or beach book (aka "history lite").

Did not meet expectations
I was given this book to read after a family member finished it. I wish I had asked their opinion of it prior to reading it. Not considering myself a subject matter expert, I was hoping for something a bit more substantive. What I got instead was a book filled with a wandering dialogue, broken up in places by the author's personal conjecture/supposition on unrelated matters. If I had wanted Cantor's opinion on today's British royal family, or the current state of the Catholic church, I certainly wasnt expecting to get it in here. But you will and more...
While it was readable, the lack of documentation was somewhat annoying to say the least. I am sure there are other more weighty and well-written tomes on this subject matter. Dont look here if you want the one-stop shop for the issue.
I cant say that I put the book down not learning something new, because I did--but I felt Cantor's own admonition in the text of other authors' predicament with publish or perish certainly reflected on his own writing here.

Avoid this like the Plague
Cantor strikes a populist direction with this book. He affects a breezy writing style (one can easily imagine much of his writing as a spoken, off-the-cuff lecture punctuated by more-or-less amusing asides, some of which totally derail his train of thought), the book is short (only 220 pages of text) and there is not a single footnote. The obvious comparison in terms of subject matter is to Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Tuchman made a best seller from her remarkable approach in spite of her scholarly writing-style. Cantor's book lacks that sophistication of approach, and is further marred, as other reviewers have already noted, by too much repetition, too many asides, too much unsupported speculation, too many inconsistencies, and too many factual errors. There is some merit to the book, but its flaws far outweigh its worth.

Cantor at his best cites an interesting theory: that the Black Death was not a single disease, but two or more--not bubonic plague alone, but also some cattle-borne disease such as a particularly virulent form of anthrax. Supporting this theory are the Black Death's infestation of Iceland, an isolated island not known to have rats until the 17th Century, the often extremely rapid course of the disease--faster than that of bubonic plague; the lack of typical bubonic plague symptoms in many victims; the evidence that cattle were ravished by the Black Death; and the continued virulence of the plague in winter months when flea hosts would not normally live. The theory is not Cantor's own, but he has researched and supported it in seemingly convincing fashion, but he ignores the actual nature of the disease in its "pneumatic" form. Less adequate is Cantor's chapter "Heritage of the African Rifts", which discusses the three pandemics of smallpox, gonorrhea, and plague and places their origin in "the great mortality chute from East Africa. Certainly that is where the bubonic plague came from after A.D. 500." But in his bibliography Cantor cites William H. McNeill's Plagues and Peoples and says, contradicting his own earlier statement written with such certainty, "McNeill thought the Mongols, their migrations and conquests, were a key to plague history; there may be something in that."

Also of interest, but clearly quirky, was Cantor's chapter on various speculations on the true cause of the Black Death. "Serpents and Cosmic Dust" covers alternative explanations for the "biomedical catastrophe" from the medieval to the present, focusing on two suggestions: the first, that snakes were the carriers; the second, that plague came from outer space. Cantor is kind, although not entirely enthusiastic, about these speculations: at one point he says "It is just possible that medieval writers who placed the origins of the Black Death in serpents dispensing plague as they swam up rivers were on to something." Unfortunately, the only "evidence" he offers is that another historian on an unrelated issue once took medieval writers at their word in the face of academic thought and has since been vindicated. The argument in favor of the cosmic dust theory is basically that it was proposed by eminent astrophysicist Fred Hoyle--what is not mentioned is Hoyle's second career as a well-known science fiction writer. Hoyle's is a fascinating speculation, which only the most flimsy of circumstantial evidence can currently support.

Cantor mentions one fascinating fact in this chapter that needed to be explored much further: plague was not widespread in Poland and Bohemia. This has been explained "by the rats' avoidance of these areas due to the unavailability of food the rodents found palatable." This seems unlikely --elsewhere Cantor points out the relative agricultural wealth of Poland and the Ukraine. Could Polish grain really be considerably different than Western European grain--and what of the anthrax theory, which would have the disease unaffected by the rodent's diet?

Socio-cultural differences between Poland and Bohemia and the rest of Europe would make an ideal testing ground for those theories concerning the effect the Black Death had on society, the arts, and religion. But rather than do any original research comparing plague-ridden and plague-free areas, Cantor merely launches into various criticisms of his colleagues' work in his final chapter, "Aftermath". Cantor examines these theories and subjects them to a much less forgiving critique than the far wilder speculations mentioned previously. Some of these attacks are odd indeed, such as critiquing a book published in 1919! This is the most poorly written and argued part of the entire book, and honestly I cannot tell to what conclusion Cantor comes-whether the Black Death did or did not have any profound effect beyond killing off certain talented individuals.

Finally, the outright errors. Rather than repeat those caught by other reviewers, I'll discuss the extraordinary apparent claim of time-travel. Cantor recounts the story of the le Strange/Talbot family. Richard Talbot inherited the la Strange estate from the dowager Mary upon her "dying in 1396." (Whether this was a plague-related death Cantor apparently deems unimportant.) Later in the chapter we are told "Richard Talbot, newly enriched by the le Strange fortune, got his father out of debtor's prison and the old soldier died of the plague in 1387 in Spain..." How could Richard have paid his father's debts with money he wouldn't receive for nine more years? I cannot account for the chronology of events without either contemplating a typographical error, a rift in the space-time continuum, or a mis-informed or deeply confused author. Hopefully it is the former, and Mary died ten years earlier than Cantor reports; but I am left with the discomforting concern that the dates are correct and Cantor simply speculated on Talbot's source of funds. Unfortunately this is not an isolated error.

While Cantor's book is more up-to-date than Barbara Tuchman's is, I can't recommend it, even as a supplement. It is too deeply flawed on too many levels. I'm left to wonder if some horrible computer virus didn't work its way through the manuscript, decimating the writing and killing at least 40% of the ultimate value of the book. As Cantor says, "It is just possible." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent
This book is the abridged form of the larger Skin Pathology book written by McKee. It has excellent ,sharp colour photographs including many close up pictures of the rare entities of dermatopathology. There are short notes below each photo to give succinct point of the disease entity . It is an essential book for any trainee pathologists who is aspiring to be a dermatopathologist and also serve as a useful reference book for the busy pathologists who just want pictures to compare with their routine diagnostic work. Overall, this book is good value for money and I would definitely recommend for trainees' pathologists. ... Read more

Book Description

Offers students an expert treatment of the theory, concepts, correlations, and applications of clinical laboratory science. The book explains the principles of analytical techniques, and presents a wealth of pedagogical features, including chapter outlines, end-of-chapter reviews, and concept applications. ... Read more

Book Description

Begins with an introduction to Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), followed by in-depth explanations of the sections in the CPT manual.Unit 2 covers the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD 9-CM). Unit 3 concerns third party reimbursement. Appendix provides the official ICD-9-CM guidelines for coding and reporting. A new feature, From the Trenches, highlights a different real-life medical coding practitioner in each chapter, with photographs throughout the chapter alongside quotes that offer practical advice or motivational comments. A new workbook supplements the text with more than 1,000 questions and terminology exercises, as well as original source documents to familiarize the reader with documents they will encounter in practice. ISBN for Workbook is 0-7216-9349-0. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

No Answer Key
I purchased this book for an online medical coding and reimbursement class. Overall I was disappointed. Although the author gives good examples of coding procedures, sometimes she doesn't follow through with showing examples of some of the more complex coding rules. Most frustrating was not having an answer key for readers to check their answers to the numerous exercises... particularly since medical coding stresses "accuracy, accuracy, accuracy". The frequent hand symbol of stop! was very annoying. The book does have useful info that is clearly written. However, I would not recommend spending the money for this book without an answer key included. ...

Thumbs Up for this Useful Book
As preparation for the CCS examination, I find this book to provide excellent background material on the CPT classification system and outpatient medical coding. I'm in the beginning stages of using the text; but I am immediately impressed. It seems logical, thorough, and well-organized. While the coding exercises are an aid, it is the supporting documentation that sets this book apart from other review books I have been using. I give it a high recommendation to those of you who are searching for a comprehensive, up-to-date resource.

GOOD PRICE
If your going to Fairleigh Dickinson University and your taking up Medical Coding and Billing you will need this book

Step-By-Step Medical Coding
This is easy to use and really works to learn medical coding. It is written so you can understand it and has a lot of questions right in the text. The answers to the questions are in the back of the book. I also got the workbook, and every other question answer is in the back of that book with hint. This really is a good book. I thought this would be hard for me to learn, but it wasn't.

Teaching with Step-by-Step
I have been using Step-by-Step Medical Coding to teach with for the last four years. I have had excellent results with the students comprehension and building of job skills. I think she has a wonderful methodology of skill building and incremental learning. ... Read more