The following are textbooks of possible interest and are available either in print or online. AccessMedicine has a nice diagnostic tests text but may be busy.
To find more books of interest, use the Roger search box below.
Videos on This Week's Topics
The medical center has a special focus of patient-centered care which connects nicely with evidence-based care. A little practice now means more flexibility later. What does this really mean? In general, try looking for the highest evidence possible. It is a good time to pull together what you've learned about studies & the evidence they provide from the EBMI thread.
Resources for this Case
Textbooks (look left)
Quick Links to Those Favorite Resources
Surprise! Micromedex is for more than just drugs
Zoom in to articles with data : Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
NEJM Liver Transplantation Article
Lab Tests Resources : Henry's & more
National Organizations & MELD Resources
Those Familiar Favorites
Micromedex
A surprise for this week is the detail Micromedex offers for medical topics.
It provides both Quick Answers and In-Depth Answers - and that is where the good stuff can be found. For example, a search for alcoholic liver disease has some very interesting info for this week's look ups. Or better yet, look up cirrhosis and it has a nice short list of possible causes.
Enter that in the main search box to get to the page with the Quick & In-Depth Answer tabs.
Evidence-based Tools
What is the evidence? How do you quickly find the best evidence is a better question. It is all about the tools, so know your tools.
Cochrane Library, or more specifically, the Database of Systematic Reviews
The good news, when you find your answer here, it is a very quick process. The data of many research trials is combined into one cohesive resource. The bad news, great stuff takes time to build so not all topics are here in Cochrane.
For this case, see what the resource has to say (if anything) about alcohol withdrawal or try spontaneous bacterial peritonitis.
Should you use benzodiazepines? anticonvulsants? magnesium? baclofen? something else? Or, which antibiotics should be used with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis? These systematic reviews will help going through the evidence on treating a person with these conditions.
When viewing the reviews, don't forget to view the full-text as the default initial view is only the plain-language summary.
This tool is great for boiling down multiple studies into one with the added benefit of synthesizing into a cohesive single opinion. Jump to the Figures tab to take a look at the data presented - make good use of your EBMI skills.
Looking up information about the results of lab tests are mostly background questions. The following resources are easy to use tools to find very reliable information about the normal values, reference ranges, and more.