RT Journal
A1 Larkin G
T1 EMergency medicine
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2009
FD July 8
VO 302
IS 2
SP 200
OP 201
DO 10.1001/jama.2009.992
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.992
AB 
Since the anointing of emergency medicine as one of the youngest specialties in the house of medicine (1979), a number of textbooks have attempted to educate the increasing number of student acolytes drawn to the field. Like most texts in the broad field of emergency medicine, Emergency Medicine is wide ranging, thick, and comprehensive. This inaugural edition has much to recommend it. Many of the 212 chapters are authored by leaders in their particular field. Each chapter is beautifully presented and laid out with a litany of “key points” that prime readers with tantalizing tidbits at the outset of each chapter. After providing a brief description of the scope and relevant pathophysiology of a particular clinical issue, most chapters go on to include the sections “Presenting Signs and Symptoms,” “Diagnostic Testing,” “Interventions,” and “Treatment and Disposition.” The text provides specific doses of drugs and procedural photographs, making it especially relevant to physicians in training. Compared with some emergency medicine textbooks, the editors place less emphasis on biological, epidemiologic, and research perspectives but much more on practical usefulness and application.