E Lee, The University of Sheffield

It is very easy to overlook and underestimate the importance of consolidating your basic medical science knowledge as a pre-clinical medical student. It is also not helped by not knowing which textbooks to buy, and having to search and flick back and forth between several textbooks for different subjects, especially when you’re a new medical student and do not know Where to start or How to study ‘Medicine’. If only I discovered this textbook earlier, I would not have needed to spend so much money on separate textbooks for Physiology, Biochemistry, Haematology/Immunology, Genetics, Pharmacology, Pathology, Neuroscience and Epidemiology (includes statistics), or so much time flicking back and forth textbooks. This textbook simply covered all of these topics in sufficient detail in a clinical context that is required of a pre-clinical medical student. It does not cover the depth of Clinical Medicine as its sister “Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine” textbook does, however it certainly provides a solid pre-clinical foundation that is vital to Clinical Medicine! The Nervous System is a difficult topic – especially when encountering it for the first time as a (medical) student. Many textbooks do not make Neuroscience easy reading. However, this textbook certainly did. It definitely has excellent diagrams and tables compacting all the necessary facts, making it easy and quick to get a good, firm grasp of this topic. The Cardiovascular System is another difficult topic that this textbook covers very well. It compiles all the information and relevant diagrams and charts, cutting out the need to flick through pages and pages of lecture slides and different textbooks. The textbook has the correct balance of Text vs Diagrams/Tables, covering the topics in sufficient detail without making the reading dull. It contains anatomy diagrams, Histology pictures, flow diagrams, graphs, and very handy tables. They Bolded key words and have wide side-margins, making it student-friendly to read, highlight, and annotate. If you wanted to revise/skim, there are Clinical Boxes and Information Boxes summarising the key points and bringing the sciences into a clinical perspective, thus helping to consolidate your learning. As a conclusion, I highly recommend this textbook. It basically was a concise mash-up of all of my lecture notes in the pre-clinical years. It is friendly-reading and ‘all-in-one’, making studying and understanding new concepts a whole lot quicker and efficient, allowing (medical) students to get on with other things in their time!

Posted 5th Jan 2011

T. B. , The University of Sheffield

• One of the good features about this book is that it has student consult online. Therefore it is easy to access the material anywhere without carrying the book around itself. The bonus multiple choice questions are also a good feature as the readers can test themselves of the material read to see how much they have remembered or understood and is a good aid to learning. • The book also has numerous good colour diagrams, pictures and photographs which support and enhance the written text to help explain the material in a more visual way. The use of diagrams is vital as it makes the text much easier to read and understand, it is also more inviting for the reader if there are good diagrams. • The information boxes and clinical boxes are very helpful as they add additional information which is relevant to the text. The clinical boxes are especially useful as they highlight the key clinical points and link the medical science with the clinical science. • This book covers all the main topics which are taught in the pre-clinical years of medical school. I found that it was useful having all the medical science in one textbook. In addition it has a similar layout to Kumar and Clarke, thus complementing it. Overall I have found that this is a good reference book containing a lot of the pre-clinical topics and teaching in medical sciences. It makes it easy to access a particular topic which you are slightly unsure of and need further explanation and information on. The book is a good accompaniment to Kumar and Clarke clinical medicine as this is orientated more around medical science as opposed to the clinical science, and both are of a similar layout thus complementing each other. The book was easy to read and contained information to the correct depth of knowledge regarded as useful. It has a clear layout and important points are highlighted though diagrams, bold text and boxes.

Posted 3rd Jan 2011

George Collins, University College London

I’m still a preclinical student, and this is as much a gold standard for me as (I’ve heard!) Kumar and Clarke’s Clinical Medicine is for clinical students, and because of the rapid advances in Medicine it’s so important to keep a grasp of the underlying physiological concepts behind symptoms and treatments. This why these two gold standard texts go hand in hand so well. You’ve got the easy to “dip in to” Medical Sciences text for the physiological information and then Clinical Medicine for the more in-depth clinical knowledge. The breadth, depth and visual appeal of this book are astounding. I just wish I’d had it 3 years ago!

Posted 30th Mar 2010

Edward Chu, University of Cape Town

Medical Sciences is a great book to read for introduction/general overview and revision of the different sections covered in medical school. It's brilliant that it combines the different basic sciences into one book. However, I feel there's not enough detail in terms of areas like anatomy, pathology and microbiology. The other areas are well-covered in just the right amount of detail. The diagrams are well illustrated. The general layout of the book is well designed and makes the book a pleasure to read. I think it's a good buy for 1st and 2nd year medical students.

Posted 13th Feb 2010

Latifa Patel, University of Liverpool

Naish has done something completely quirky and new. I am a PBL girl so on initial observation its not really my cup of tea. But for those studying in the didactic methods and also those who really want a sound scientific background to their studies Naish is your book. 1096 colourful pages divided into 9 chapters covering basic chemistry and biology (from DNA and cells to tissue and organs). Surprisingly this book covers everything and more. I would give this book a Buyer Rating of 5/5 but only after you've borrowed from the library first - so you know exactly what its about. Enjoy, Latifa (“,)

Posted 26th Sep 2009

Donncha Mullin, University of Glasgow

As someone who doesn’t have a strong science background, I find this book very useful indeed. It places all the science in a clinical context, keeping me focused on what I really need to know. The scope of the book is huge – covering all the basic medical sciences – so some areas naturally lack detail. As such, for the later years in medical school, when more detail is needed, I think I will be relying on the traditional specialist textbooks. However, I feel entirely comfortable recommending it to first and second year medical students and other healthcare students that won’t be going into tremendous depth on specific topics. Think of the money saved by not having to buy a book for each science! I was pleased to see that it includes sections on Public Health and Nutrition alongside the traditional medical sciences, particularly considering the increasing importance of these topics within medicine. The image library is a very useful function for printing any of the book’s pictures in good detail or using them in PowerPoint presentations. For all you techno-geeks out there, the online access allows content to be sent to your PDA.

Posted 24th Sep 2009

Aniek de Coninck, Maastricht University

Medical sciences by Naish is a new textbook in which the authors strive to integrate the basic medical and clinical sciences into one comprehendible and easy to read textbook. It is designed to complement Kumar and Clark’s Clinical medicine by covering the basic sciences in a clinical context. It covers anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, general pathology and much more and therefore provides all the student needs to know about these subjects in one textbook, making it a very easy to read and perfect introductory for medical students. The design of the book is very similar to that of Clinical medicine making it a very colorful and nicely laid out textbook. The color scheme used throughout the book is very easy on the eye and makes reading it very enjoyable. The illustrations are beautiful and the diagrams are very useful to help you comprehend the material even faster. The book also had Student consult which means the entire book is available online ensuring that you can read it anywhere anytime you want, without having to carry it around. This book is one of the first of its kind, integrating all the basic sciences into one book very successfully. I would recommend this book to all medical student.

Posted 6th Sep 2009

Tara Berger, University of Newcastle

This new medical sciences textbook is designed to cover all the basic sciences needed to get to grips with the more clinical focus of a book like Kumar & Clarke. It is systems based, but also has incredibly useful chapters on pharmacology, genetics, pathology and epidemiology. The coverage is extremely thorough, such that you probably wouldn't need a separate textbook for any of these subjects, and in fact, the whole book is of a very high standard. This also makes it ideal for clinical medical students looking to consolidate their learning. The level of detail (and rather small print!) means that it is not ideal as a revision text, but the layout and colour diagrams make difficult topics easier to take in. Although this is a medical sciences textbook, it anticipates clinical study very well, providing the content and level of detail appropriate for medical students. It is also so comprehensive that you could probably get away with using just this for pre-clinical learning, along with perhaps an anatomy textbook. This is a definitely a staple book that will continue to be useful throughout medical school and long after graduation.

Posted 26th Aug 2009

Ahlam Abdullah, Other

it's very important that you have a book with the most important basics for medicine it is helpful in PBL and MRCP exam ,also all of these in the ( medical sciences book)

Posted 10th Aug 2009