Video Casebook: Medicine - the Toy Boy and the Burgundy Car

Andrew Levy
Blackwell Science, 1999; £14.95
ISBN 0632051221

This book's distinctive feature is the CD Rom that comes with it. It comprises 50 cases, along with 15-second video clips of patients describing their symptoms on the CD. Notes and five multiple choice questions are included for each of the cases. The questions are also laid out on the CD, but the notes relevant to each case, along with basic science facts, are provided only in the book. The cases are listed in numerical order and also organised by specialty on the CD (for example, gastrointestinal system, respiratory system, or cardiovascular system).

Looking at the cases on CD Rom makes them much more real, with patients describing symptoms of the hospital episode "live." This makes them far more interesting than merely reading about them in a book.

Much effort seems to have been put into putting the cases into the video format. The quality of the multiple choice questions and of the diagrams does, however, not match the novelty of the videos. For example, an electrocardiogram for complete heart block on the computer screen is difficult to interpret because of a lack of resolution.

One drawback is that not all students have access to a computer that meets the requirements of running the video (Windows 95, 16 Mb RAM, and a decent processor).

Although the package's strength lies in its video clips, the book remains a fairly good compendium of cases by itself. The cases are interesting, and the video clips are an exciting way of making them even more appealing. Even if the package does not replace a textbook, it makes a very useful companion to one.

Lok Bin Yap, senior house officer in medicine, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, Oxford


studentBMJ 2000;08:89-130 April ISSN 0966-6494