Edited by J. Larry Jameson, Leslie J. De Groot et al

ISBN  978-0-323-18907-1

Price £251.99 from http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/endocrinology/endocrinology-adult-and-pediatric-2-volume-set-expert-consult/9780323189071

Published by Elsevier Saunders

Although I have used, the UK spelling of paediatric in the title of this book at the top of this review-on the front of the actual book the spelling is “pediatric.” So you can probably work out that this is primarily a North American sourced textbook. But that is not the whole story as out of the eight editors, one is from Australia and the other one is from the United Kingdom whilst the remainder are from the United States. Among the large contingent of contributors to this two volume book of excellence, there is a fair smattering of international authors. This is in addition to the many American contributors and so gives this offering a global appeal. Without doubt it deserves a large and universal audience, as it is a superb textbook as well as a substantial and scholarly reference source for all those with an interest in this field.

This two volume edition is a huge work and great credit must go to the editors for pulling together a massive amount of information and bringing it all together under the roof of this impressive textbook. Unusually for a major international reference resource, adult and paediatric topics are covered. This combined adult and paediatric approach makes sense and provides the user with an enhanced panorama of this important discipline. This is acknowledged in the preface where in this edition, the plan has been to enhance coverage of relevant paediatric topics and relevant paediatric text is helpfully highlighted. It is an ambitious task but I feel that this book has pulled it off, perhaps setting the benchmark for other substantial reference works.

There is a huge volume of material covered in this book which goes to an impressive depth but at the same time should not overwhelm the clinician either wanting to use this as a reference source or to help with the direct management of a patient. Being a substantial reference book, it is easy to dip in and read around a topic which hopefully will result in improved knowledge for the reader. I read around many topics and found the whole experience illuminating and helpful and certainly have learnt a lot. As would be expected in such a modern and multi contributor work, the impressive editorial effort has resulted in a seamlessly integrated text. I doubt if an individual could write such a vast book and the expertise brought by the many contributors helps enhance the value of the book.

Within this package and is now virtually the standard for a major modern textbook, there is a web and an app version and the latter can be used in an appropriate smartphone or tablet. The download for the app is a whopping 809MB so you will need a fair amount of room in your mobile device. Having a download means that searching and access is fast as the content exists on the memory of the device and does not need an Internet connection, after the initial download. A nice touch.

In summary I found this to be an outstanding resource and not unexpectedly, the physical book and its digital bundles does not come cheap. This is a premium product which will attract a premium price. Some people will want this book along with its digital additions and be prepared to meet the cost. Assuming they will be regular users, I suspect they won’t be disappointed. If endocrinology is your main professional interest as a clinician, they I suspect you will be happy to own this excellent resource.

Dr Harry Brown

May 2014