Mosby's Medical Dictionary » (8th Edition)

Featuring comprehensive definitions and vivid, full-color illustrations, Mosby's Medical Dictionary is the source to trust for answers to your questions about medical procedures, lab tests, disorders and conditions, medical equipment, human anatomy, and more. Its user-friendly, highly visual approach offers large, easy-to-read type and a logical organization that makes it easy to look up unfamiliar terms quickly. In this edition, more than 10,000 entries have been revised and updated, and over 5,000 new entries have been added to keep pace with recent advances in health care.

• Comprehensive, authoritative definitions - including expanded definitions of major diseases, disorders, procedures, and drugs - offer the most accurate, complete information on medical and health care terminology available.

• Practical, straightforward alphabetical organization, with no confusing subentries, makes it easy to find definitions fast.

• Updated, expanded drug entries include the latest commonly prescribed drugs currently on the market.

• Hundreds of lab test definitions describe and explain key lab tests.

• Definitions for more than 50 complementary and alternative medical therapies have been added, and definitions for over 100 herbs have been updated, reflecting the growing popularity of these alternative treatments.

• Pronunciations and eponyms for key entries assist the reader in learning and using terminology in everyday practice.

• Large, clear type is easy to read, and colored entries are easy to find.

• British spellings of selected entries help users recognize alternate spellings.

• Color Atlas of Human Anatomy contains dozens of full-color, clearly labeled drawings of all body systems, to assist with learning or reviewing anatomy.

• Nearly 2,500 colorful photographs and drawings illustrate all subject areas - more than 800 new!

• 5,000 new definitions have been added, representing all areas of medicine and health care, with special emphasis on definitions related to new drugs, health professions, changes in health care delivery, bioterrorism, and new technological developments.

• Material has been thoroughly reviewed by a board of more than 100 expert consultants representing all areas of medicine to ensure the accuracy and currency of content and the inclusion of appropriate new entries.

• More than 10,000 definitions have been updated and revised to reflect current practice, and obsolete terminology has been removed.

• Over 70 definitions for such key conditions as SARS have been expanded to contain comprehensive, detailed information.

• New colored entry words clearly stand out on the page, making it easier to find terms.

• All tables have been updated, and more than 800 new illustrations have been added.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:LouAnn Schraffenberger, MBA, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P(Univ of Illinois at Chicago School of Biomed & Health Info Mgmt)
Description:This is the seventh edition of Mosby's Medical Dictionary with full-color illustrations. The publisher states that more than 10,000 entries have been revised and updated, and over 5,000 new entries have been added to keep pace with advances in medicine. The previous edition was published in 2002.
Purpose:The purpose is to provide a comprehensive medical dictionary with over 2,400 color illustrations so the reader can easily find a clear, concise definition of a medical term. It is organized in a straightforward alphabetic listing. According to the publisher, the dictionary "was developed to provide a single source of authoritative, up-to-date information concerning health and health care terminology.
Audience:The audience is anyone who may use a medical dictionary to identify an unfamiliar medical or healthcare term. The audience may be students in allied health programs, clinical and nonclinical practitioners in healthcare settings, and anyone who may encounter medical terminology in their daily work.
Features:The dictionary's most distinctive feature is the full-color illustrations that appear on almost every page. The typeface is easy to read; the definitions are clear and concise; there is a detailed color atlas of human anatomy; there are numerous entries for drugs and laboratory tests. Definitions have been added for complementary and alternative medical therapies and herbs. Poison control centers are listed in the front cover pages. The four appendixes include medical symbols, the American Sign Language and Manual Communication alphabet, the timeline for Health Promotion 2009 and general resources with listing of major national healthcare organizations. Prior to inclusion in the dictionary, the material is reviewed by a board of more than 100 practitioners representing all areas of medicine and healthcare.
Assessment:This is a very nice, reliable medical dictionary that is reasonably priced. While there are over 2,000 pages, the book is not cumbersome or difficult to handle and store. The definitions are clear and concise with almost an encyclopedic style instead of simply a definition and pronunciation provided. The color illustrations are well placed and add emphasis to key terms. It not only includes medical terms but other phrases that are common in healthcare, such as healthcare proxy, North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, and abbreviations, such as RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation referring to a treatment for strains and sprains). I recommend this edition as a comprehensive "more-than-a-dictionary" for any reference shelf.

Consultants List of Illustrations List of Boxes and Tables Guide to the Dictionary Pronunciation Key Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Vocabulary Health Organizations and Resources