general

This book is the Bible of Internal Medicine. Anyone considering a career in medicine should have this book in their library. Comprehensive and well written, it is the gold standard of medical textbooks.

Harrison's is one of the leading authorities on internal medicine. Access to Harrison's is an ABSOLUTE MUST for any medical student! However, you might want to consider your options before sheeling out all of this money.

The first consideration is that your medical school library probably has access to the online version of Harrison's. You may even be able to access it from your home from your school library's website. this doesn't work that well for me, because I hate reading long articles online. I need to be able to make notes and highlight. You can print from the website, but it is a hassle.

The second, and I think best option, is to buy a used copy of Harrison's while in medical school, and then maybe get the current edition when you graduate. The basic information doesn't change that much from year to year. you can use an old copy of Harrison's to get the basic concepts down and then use other resources to get the most up-to-date info. I bought a copy that was 2 years old... and I am pretty happy with it.

Harrison's is an excellent textbook... Most important problem for a physician is to get more accurate and objective datas as much as possible. Treatment modalities may be manuplated by many observers, representers; but you have to reach all of the experiences in a few minutes... For example many editors try to dictate replacement therapy or bifosfonates, but you need to read more about fluor therapy. Or you need to know that; only face and forearms are sufficient to see the sun for a few hours per week except many limited geography of the earth; so we dont need to prescribe expensive 1,25 vitD capsules routinly... There are a lot of textbooks which are full-up by subjective, limited studies to dictate many therapies. I hope new edition consists more cardiology... And we need fast look-up frames for quick reference, like Glance or Current. For example essential objectives for diagnosis, lab. and treatment notes in a few sentences... Thank you for this nice reference in medicine...