Overview
Here is my as-of-year-2013 list of the best medical books of all time, books which I consider to be great to spectacular.
Anonymous posts are allowed. Please let me know if you have any additional suggestions for inclusion. I would especially like to add to the list books on electrocardiography, sports medicine, oncology and autoimmune diseases, subjects which are not represented in this list at all.
The oldest book on the list is Dr. Hoppenfeld’s Physical Examination of the Spine and Extremities. I seriously doubt whether its place on the list will be granted to a different musculoskeletal medicine book in my lifetime–but I’d be happy to prove myself wrong. The most recently-published book is Dr. Gallagher’s Board Stiff TEE: Transesophageal Echocardiography, 2e (2013). It is a great book about echocardiography in particular and about valvular heart disease in general.
There is a slight tendency toward including books published in the United States, in part because many outstanding medical books have, in fact, been published here. Availability bias, however, could not be avoided. Also unavoidable–at least in the short term–is the fact that I don’t understand or speak French, German, or Japanese. A good chunk, if not most, of the world’s medical literature is inaccessible to me because of language barriers. Please let me know if you know of any non-English language books that deserve special consideration.
Without further ado, and in no definitive order, here they are:
- Dr. Gerald de Lacey, The Chest X-Ray: A Survival Guide by (2008, reviewed here).
- Igbaseimokumo, Usiakimi, MD, Brain CT Scans in Clinical Practice (2009, reviewed here)
- Herring, William, MD, Learning Radiology, Recognizing the Basics, 2e (2011, reviewed here)
- Kurtz, Ira, MD, Acid Base Case Studies (2004, reviewed here)
Acid Base Case Studies (2004) - Desai, Samir P., MD, Clinician’s Guide to Laboratory Medicine: Pocket (2009, reviewed here)
- Peters, Wallace, MD, Atlas of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology (2007, reviewed here)
- Schlossberg, David, MD, Differential Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases (1996, reviewed here)
- Klatt, Edward C., MD, Robbins and Cotran Atlas of Pathology, 2e (2009, reviewed here)
- Howick, Jeremy H., Dr., The Philosophy of Evidence-based Medicine (2011, reviewed here)
- Hauser, Alan R., MD, PhD., Antibiotic Basics for Clinicians: The ABCs of Choosing the Right Antibacterial Agent, 2e (2012, reviewed here)
- Orient, Jane M., MD, Sapira’s Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis (2009)
- Hoppenfeld, Stanley, MD, Physical Examination of the Spine and Extremities (1976, reviewed here)
- Buttaravoli, Philip, MD, Minor Emergencies (2007, reviewed here)
- Blackbourne, Lorne H., MD, Surgical Recall, 6e (2012, reviewed here)
- Jarrell, Bruce, MD, NMS Surgery Casebook (2003, reviewed here)
- Silen, William, MD, Cope’s Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen (2010, reviewed here)
- Ovalle, William K., PhD., Netter’s Essential Histology (2007)
- Gallagher, Christopher, MD, Board Stiff TEE: Transesophageal Echocardiography, 2e (2013)
- Bain, Barbara Jane, Prof. Haematology, A Core Curriculum (2010, reviewed here)
Update: Newer (as of 2015) list here.
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