Saad Fyyaz, The University of Nottingham

Pathology forms the bedrock of medicine and this textbook has been pivotal in developing my understanding and appreciation. I used this concurrently with the Clinical Lab Sciences module, as this is the recommended text for the UG medicine course at Notts. At the outset, as the authors have stated, there is an overwhelming amount of information and this text was created specifically to focus on core knowledge required of basic pathological processes, and they’ve succeeded in making Core Pathology a very succinct and concise text. The beauty of Core Pathology lies in its simplicity; illustrations and text are exceptionally clear and pitched at the appropriate level for students to follow (with greater emphasis on diseases we may encounter as students). There is sufficient detail to engage the reader, instigating your interest and allowing you to develop an understanding. At the same time you’re not overloaded with information unnecessary at the earlier stages of our career. In my opinion the information flows well making this a genuinely easy to use and accessible textbook – subtle details such as the positioning and clarity of diagrams and other adjuncts aid your understanding. As simple as it may seem, the implementation of telegraph headings to provide a brief overview of the succeeding text is employed incredibly effectively. I found in particular the “key facts” textboxes to be a rapid and apt summary for reviewing the material at speed, and it is important to highlight the “clinical textboxes”, which place the pathology into a clear clinical context. There is no doubt it has less factual detail than the likes of Robbins – but I found Core Pathology to be somewhat inspiring and considerably more readable which has thus far proved an invaluable resource. Importantly, I am confident I will refer to in the future.

Posted 8th Mar 2011

Vaibhav Gupta, The University of Nottingham

Pathology is one of the core topics covered in medical school and students definitely require a textbook in this area, which they will find applies to a variety of modules they will study. For undergraduate medicine, Core Pathology is an excellent book to extend your knowledge and learn new topics without being baffled by their complexity. The beauty of this book is that it takes fundamental principles in the study of disease and brings it down to the student level so the information is easy to learn. This textbook is vibrant and highly interactive – it catches your attention and presents information through coloured boxes, tables, pictures, and diagrams, which so smoothly supplement the text from each chapter. What I particularly like about this book is that information is presented in bite-sized paragraphs, and their headings are descriptive sentences which make an informative statement which is explained by the text. I think this is such a phenomenal way of writing and haven’t seen it done by other books – this format not only informs you of what you are about to read in the coming passage, but also serves as a great prompt when you are flipping back through pages you have read and what to have a think about everything you have learned. Through comprehensive coverage of the topic and use of histological slides, tissue images, schematic diagrams, and clinical presentation photos, Core Pathology literally makes it a pleasure to learn medicine because it never fails to satisfy your curiosity when you open the book to study disease.

Posted 31st Oct 2010

George Collins, University College London

The title says it all: "Core pathology"; it' a demand-based rather than supply-based approach to a pathology, perfect for the need-to-know student like me! I like it because it doesn't include unnecessary detail, it is geared to what is going to come up in exams. Using big text size, bullet points and summary boxes you can get a good grasp of the pathology of a system quickly, and the case studies at the end of each chapter make it a great tool for PBL students too.

Posted 30th Mar 2010