Bernard Ho, St George's, University of London

I find it really hard to find the 'perfect' dermatology book and feel like I'm Goldilocks. It's either too much text, too many pictures, or simply too big of a textbook. The ICT series have never let me down. It lets me know the 'basic' level of knowledge I should know for most of the subspecialty topics that the series cover. I found that this book gives the 'right' amount of text and is the 'right' size. The topics are laid out in a very sensible order and organized in 3 big categories: basic principles, diseases, and special topics. The text has a mix of text in bullet points and also in prose form. I particularly like the layout of the pages (quite similar to the other ICT books). No space is wasted with unnecessary tables or images. Everything in it is written to a sensible depth, ensuring most medical students to not feel completely overwhelmed by such a vast topic. I wish there were more pictures in the book, considering dermatology is a very 'visual' specialty. However, it can easily be supplemented with Google images or any decent clinical medicine book that have subchapters on skin diseases or skin 'signs' on clinical examination. I would recommend this book: if your 'general clinical medicine' book doesn't cover dermatology to the degree of your liking, if you already have other books in the ICT series, if you have a special interest in dermatology, or if you prefer to learn from 'thinner' textbooks.

Posted 2nd Feb 2012

Bob Dunkley, Other

As a practicing community pharmacist, I get to see a lot more skin conditions in a day than perhaps anyone outside a university dermatological department - certainly the average GP!! People will come into a pharmacy and point a limb or part of the body at you and say "what is this??" You have then to give a spot diagnosis - is it a bulla, is it a pimple, etc etc. This volume by Gawkrodger, gives the practising pharmacist a fighting chance, of being able to say "Yes - I can give you something for that" or "Ooooh [not really, but the mental sharp intake of breath] I think you ought to see your GP." I came across this volume by sheer accident, doing a locum placement in a pharmacy, and as I have a small interest in dermatology, I shall buy it, and recommen my colleagues do the same.

Posted 5th Jan 2009

Shreelatta Datta, Imperial College, London

This review refers to a previous edition of this book

The chapters have been classified into three main colour coded sections, guiding the reader through the scientific basis of dermatology and its clinical applications. Each topic is presented on a double page spreads incorporating line drawings, tables and at a glance ‘’key point’’ boxes. High resolution colour photographs, essential to differentiating between various dermatological conditions are strategically placed to break up, but simultaneously supplement, the text. The text itself is set out logically, incorporating bullet points and ‘’information boxes’’, with minimal jargon. All the essential information is packed into each double page unit, without overcrowding the pages or resorting to text which requires a magnifying glass to read. In a nutshell, a core text which provides and ‘’quick stop tour’’ to dermatology, with the perfect balance between text and illustrations.

Posted 1st Jun 2007