Abstract
Revision Notes for the Respiratory Medicine Specialty Certificate Examination is a short and concise revision aid, which is aimed at supporting UK medical trainees in undertaking the compulsory assessment prior to completion of training. The book begins with 50 practice ‘best of five’ examination questions. Following this, each chapter then provides a neatly summarised tutorial of the most common respiratory disorders, in around 5 pages per chapter. Differential diagnosis, risk factors, clinical findings, recommended investigations, management strategies and complications are described throughout. The final chapters explain in more detail the procedures, interventions and interpretation of common tests, and an overview of research methods and statistics is also included.
As a book of revision notes, the practice exam questions and the concise, bullet point style makes it easy to digest large volumes of information. The book is heavily text-based and there are few graphs or images within the tutorial chapters. Current national and international guidelines are referenced throughout and conveniently listed again as a summary at the end. Readers must be mindful that these guidelines may be superseded in the future, although future editions of the book may manage this. There is a comprehensive list of abbreviations and an adequate breadth of respiratory scoring systems and tests are described.
While this book is marketed as a revision aid for medical trainees, it is apparent that it has another use for the practitioner, as a brief reference guide for the diagnosis and management of individuals with respiratory conditions. In the preface of the book, the authors clarify that the text is not exhaustive, and that learning will be enhanced by clinical experience. However, the easy navigation and clear subheadings may make it useful to aid decision-making in a clinical scenario.