Medicine

***A Waterstones Best Paperback of 2022 pick***

Perfect for fans of Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and Professor Brian Cox.

‘A delightful and scintillating hymn to science.’ Professor Carlo Rovelli

Comedian Robin Ince quickly abandoned science at school, bored by a fog of dull lessons and intimidated by the barrage of equations. But, twenty years later, he fell in love and he now presents one of the world’s most popular science podcasts. Every year he meets hundreds of the world’s greatest thinkers.

In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn’t just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more – as well as charting Robin’s own journey with science – The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult. From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage much needed intellectual humility, this optimistic and profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.

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Consisting of twelve sections covering the full breadth of practice, this Handbook covers workplace hazards and diseases, occupational health emergencies, and practical procedures. This third edition also contains new information on ethics, work health and disability, infection control, respiratory disorders, and fitness for work, with updated diagrams, figures and chemical structures to aid reader understanding.

Providing a thorough, easy-to-use guide to the whole of occupational health, this Handbook is the essential resource for all occupational physicians, occupational health nurses, and all those dealing with workplace health and fitness, giving you the information you need at your fingertips.

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THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

‘It’s a trip – engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering’ New Statesman

‘Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide … curious, careful, open minded’ The Guardian

Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs – opium, caffeine and mescaline – and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos.

In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds and our entanglement with the natural world.

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—Do you find it next to impossible to focus or concentrate?
—Have you ever experienced instant clarity after exercise? Alertness after drinking coffee?
—Does your brain inexplicably slow down during stress, while multitasking, or when meeting a deadline?
—Do you get anxious, worried, or stressed-out frequently?

In The UltraMind Solution, Dr. Mark Hyman explains that to fix your broken brain, you must heal your body first. Through his simple six-week plan, Dr. Hyman shows us how to correct imbalances caused by nutritional deficiencies, allergens, infections, toxins, and stress, restoring our health and gaining an UltraMind—one that’s highly focused, able to pay attention at will, has a strong memory, and leaves us feeling calm, confident, in control, and in good spirits.

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A bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond our brains–in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships.

Use your head.

That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backwards. What we need to do, says acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul, is think outside the brain. A host of “extra-neural” resources–the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in which we learn and work, and the minds of those around us–can help us focus more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively.

The Extended Mind outlines the research behind this exciting new vision of human ability, exploring the findings of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists, and examining the practices of educators, managers, and leaders who are already reaping the benefits of thinking outside the brain. She excavates the untold history of how artists, scientists, and authors–from Jackson Pollock to Jonas Salk to Robert Caro–have used mental extensions to solve problems, make discoveries, and create new works. In the tradition of Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind or Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, The Extended Mind offers a dramatic new view of how our minds work, with practical advice on how we can all think better.

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David J. Chalmers unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain. Writing in a thought-provoking style, Chalmers proposes that conscious experience must be understood as an irreducible entity similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the sum of its parts. Engaging and penetrating, this book adds a fresh new perspective to the subject that is sure to spark debate about our understanding of the mind for years to come.

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‘A suspenseful and frightening thriller’ Lynda La Plante

Renowned surgeon Michael Trenchard locks his office door and prepares for a relaxing evening. But what follows is a living nightmare when later he is discovered in a locked-in coma, the victim of an auto-erotic asphyxiation.

It is left to Doctor Kash Devan, Trenchard’s young protégé, to uncover the truth. And what he discovers is chilling . . .

In his ruthless pursuit of wealth and success, Trenchard has left a trail of wrecked lives, and angry people, behind him. Which of Trenchard’s victims hated him so much that they wanted to ruin not only his reputation, but his life as well?

Not all doctors are heroes . . .

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Written and reviewed by a team of highly experienced clinicians, academics, and trainees, this Handbook is a perfect starting point for preparation for postgraduate exams. Practical advice is presented with key evidence-based guidelines, supported by visual algorithms and top clinical tips.

The previous edition was Highly Commended in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology category of the BMA Book Awards. The indispensable, concise, and practical guide to all aspects of obstetric and gynaecological medical care, diagnosis, and management, this fourth edition continues to be the must-have resource for all specialist trainees, junior doctors, and students, as well as a valuable aide memoire for experienced clinicians.

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A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK

‘With poignancy, humour and compassion, Jones invites us into “the invigorating chaos of pre-hospital care” . . . a panorama of experiences: the mundane, the ridiculous, the heartbreaking and the tragic’ – The Guardian

‘This beautifully written book, punctuated with wry humour, is a sobering portrayal of the ailing, the distressed and the lonely… Yet it’s also an uplifting read which will make you thankful that should your hour of need arrive, so will someone like Jones’ – Daily Express

A memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty of life as a paramedic.

A young man has stopped breathing in a supermarket toilet. A pedestrian with a nasty head injury won’t let the crew near him on a busy road. A newborn baby is worryingly silent. An addict urinates on the ambulance floor when denied a fix. This is the life of an ambulance paramedic.

Jake Jones has worked in the UK ambulance service for ten years: every day, he sees a dozen of the scenes we hope to see only once in a lifetime. Can You Hear Me? – the first thing he says when he arrives on the scene – is a memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty of life on the front-lines of medicine in the UK.

As well as a look into dozens of extraordinary scenes – the hoarder who won’t move his collection to let his ailing father leave the house, the blood-soaked man who tries to escape from the ambulance, the life saved by a lucky crew who had been called to see someone else entirely – Can You Hear Me? is an honest examination of the strains and challenges of one of the most demanding and important jobs anyone can do.

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Drawn from his popular medical columns over the years, John Launer shares fifty of his best-loved essays, covering topics from essentials skills they don t teach you in medical school to his poignant account of being a patient himself as he received treatment for a life-threatening illness.

Taken together, the stories make the case that being a doctor should mean drawing on every aspect of yourself, your interests and your experiences no matter how remote they seem from the medical task at hand.

How Not to Be a Doctor combines humour, candour and the human touch to inform and entertain readers on both ends of the stethoscope.

***PRAISE FOR HOW NOT TO BE A DOCTOR***

An essential read… It is a gem Dr. Fiona Moss, CBE, Dean of the Royal Society of Medicine

This collection is warm, wise, generous, thoughtful and thought-provoking… imbued with a moving humanity which offers inspiration and reassurance in equal measure Dr. Deborah Bowman, MBE, BBC Broadcaster and Professor of Medical Ethics and Law

‘Witty and wise. Shows how important it is that doctors are allowed to be human’ Kit Wharton, author of Emergency Admissions: Memoirs of an Ambulance Driver

An all-round excellent book, which would appeal to a wide range of healthcare professionals and students… a light-hearted way of looking at serious subjects BMA Panel of Judges

‘I raced through this book, laughing, nodding, highlighting and then read some favourite bits again. Every chapter has a gem of wisdom as well as being so very elegantly written and entertaining’ Jenny Rogers, Co-Author of Coaching for Health

Bursting with wonder and wisdom, this seductively readable book imparts courage and joy in equal measure Dr. Iona Heath, CBE. Former President, Royal College of General Practitioners and author of The Mystery of General Practice

Gets to the heart and soul of current medical practice. Written by a doctor, but incorporates life experience and wisdom, making it an easy, thought provoking read Professor Jane Dacre, President of the Royal College of Physicians

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“This is a technical book on a technical subject but presented in a delightful way. There are many books on statistics for doctors but there are few that are excellent and this is certainly one of them. Statistics is not an easy subject to teach or write about. The authors have succeeded in producing a book that is as good as it can get. For the keen student who does not want a book for mathematicians, this is an excellent first book on medical statistics.”

Essential Medical Statistics is a classic amongst medical statisticians. An introductory textbook, it presents statistics with a clarity and logic that demystifies the subject, while providing a comprehensive coverage of advanced as well as basic methods.

The second edition of Essential Medical Statistics has been comprehensively revised and updated to include modern statistical methods and modern approaches to statistical analysis, while retaining the approachable and non-mathematical style of the first edition. The book now includes full coverage of the most commonly used regression models, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, Poisson regression and Cox regression, as well as a chapter on general issues in regression modelling. In addition, new chapters introduce more advanced topics such as meta-analysis, likelihood, bootstrapping and robust standard errors, and analysis of clustered data.

Aimed at students of medical statistics, medical researchers, public health practitioners and practising clinicians using statistics in their daily work, the book is designed as both a teaching and a reference text. The format of the book is clear with highlighted formulae and worked examples, so that all concepts are presented in a simple, practical and easy-to-understand way. The second edition enhances the emphasis on choice of appropriate methods with new chapters on strategies for analysis and measures of association and impact.

Essential Medical Statistics is supported by a web site at www.blackwellpublishing.com/essentialmedstats. This useful online resource provides statistical datasets to download, as well as sample chapters and future updates.

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Medical Generalism, Now! is a unique and timely consideration of generalist medical practice. With a focus on the knowledge work of clinical practice and by taking a whole healthcare system view, the book responds to a recognized need to strengthen generalist practice within modern healthcare delivery in both primary and secondary care settings.

Through a series of creative provocations directed to consulting clinicians and their trainers/educators, service leaders and managers, and policy makers, readers are encouraged to challenge the orthodox view that generalism is an outdated ‘jack of all trades’ sub-set of clinical medicine delivering the ‘simpler’ aspects of medicine, with more complex issues requiring onward specialist referral. Case studies are used throughout to illustrate the challenges to be faced, accompanied by a description of the principles of generalist knowledge work needed to tackle the scenarios described and discussing the implications for practice and service redesign.

Essential reading for clinicians, managers and policy makers across all healthcare settings, the book concludes with a call to action, synthesizing the learning from each chapter to define and describe delivery of the key changes needed.

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• NEW! Medical Embryology Animations, now included with the purchase of the print book, allow users to visualize the stages of human development and master the corresponding anatomical relationships.
• UPDATED! Clinical Correlates boxes reinforce clinically relevant content through realistic case-based scenarios you’re likely to encounter in practice.
• UPDATED! More than 400 full-color illustrations, micrographs, and clinical images clarify key aspects of embryonic development in vivid detail.
• UPDATED! Clinical vignette and USMLE-style multiple-choice questions, available via digital access, with answers provide valuable self-assessment and strengthen your test-taking confidence. 
• Problems to Solve boost your critical thinking capabilities.
• End-of-Chapter Summaries detail key stages of development, terms, and clinical conditions for each chapter at a glance.

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