British Medical Association Family Health Encyclopedia

British Medical Association Family Health Encyclopedia

• The interactive symptoms charts help you diagnose illnesses and find out when it is safe to treat yourself and when to consult the experts
• The Emergencies and First Aid section gives you quick and accurate advice for accidents from burns to fractures
• The extensive drug glossary gives you advise on side-effects of the scores of drugs available, so you can understand your own treatment
• Detailed anatomy section shows you how your body’s systems and organs work

Everyone needs advice about health, and this authoritative electronic reference from the BMA could replace many a well-thumbed medical dictionary. It combines several books in one, sensibly arranged to make it easy to find what you are looking for. In addition to a dictionary of symptoms, the contents include an atlas of the body, a guide to first aid and emergencies, background information on some common diseases and advice on positive health and caring for others. The approach is thus thoroughly modern, advising how to live healthily as well as what to do when something is wrong. The self-diagnosis section gives you advice and information about particular symptoms. You can start by selecting the nearest description from a lengthy list, or choose by pain site or body system. For example, you could choose “chest pain” as a pain site, or “respiratory symptoms” from the body systems screen, or “difficulty breathing” from the A-Z list. Having chosen your starting point, you enter a flowchart where you answer questions about your condition to narrow down the causes. If the possibilities are serious you are advised in clear terms to phone your doctor straight away. In addition, the CD offers more thorough search facilities than a book’s index, and you can thread your way through cross-references with a single mouse click. The coverage is excellent, from children’s health to the care of older people, and the tone is always reassuring and professional. Emotional and mental health problems are covered as thoroughly as physical symptoms.–Frank Pennycook