20^th edition

Published by Merck Sharp and Dohme Corporation

ISBN 978-0-911910-42-1

Price £59.99

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/the-merck-manual-of-diagnosis-and-therapy-9780911910421.html

Editor in Chief Robert Porter

Before I go any further, I should mention a couple of points, I have done some work for the pharmaceutical company whose subsidiary is behind this book and I have used this book since I qualified a number of years ago. It is important to stress that this book is a highly acclaimed global textbook of medicine which is completely independent of the company associated with it. The books are sold on a non-profit basis and if you are in any doubt about its background read this impressive statement https://www.msdmanuals.com/en-gb/professional/resourcespages/about-the-msd-manuals 

Having used previous incarnations of this book for many years, I have got to know it and trust it but this new edition takes this book to an even higher level. Put simply, this book is superb and is much bigger and more in depth than the previous excellent edition. The readability and relevance to clinical practice is outstanding. The depth and breadth is truly superb covering vast swathes of modern medicine and covers from paediatrics to geriatrics, as well as ENT, dermatology and obviously general medicine. Although American in origin, it is clearly a global textbook of medicine and packs into its 3500 pages, a huge, trusted and scholarly reference source for the global healthcare community.

It is very detailed and yet highly readable and I know from using both this and previous editions that it is an incredibly useful and user-friendly textbook. Incredibly the whole content of the book is freely available online https://www.msdmanuals.com/en-gb/professional without advertising or needing to register and you don’t even need to own the book. The same applies to the app and there is no catch. However if you want to own the book because you like books then the purchase price represents excellent value for money.

The Merck Manual (don’t be put off by the modest name of “manual” this is a full throttle large textbook but still of a reasonable size and shape) also has a number of foreign language versions to emphasise the global nature of this resource. Even if you don’t want to buy the book check out the online and app versions and it may entice you to buy the book. This book has been going strong since 1899 and certainly looking at the quality of the latest edition, this excellent book and accompanying resources will continue to evolve and be around for a long time to come.

Dr Harry Brown June 2018