The Rational Clinical Examination ─ Evidence-based Clinical Diagnosis

The ultimate guide to the evidence-based clinical encounter

"This book is an excellent source of supported evidence that provides useful and clinically relevant information for the busy practitioner, student, resident, or educator who wants to hone skills of physical diagnosis. It provides a tool to improve patient care by using the history and physical examination items that have the most reliability and efficiency."--Annals of Internal Medicine

"There is a great deal to like about this book. It is focused on common clinical dilemmas and is well organized, and most chapters are a quick read....The evidence-based examination techniques put forth by Rational Clinical Examination the sort that can be brought to bear on a daily basis – to save time, increase confidence in medical decisions, and help decrease unnecessary testing for conditions that do not require absolute diagnostic certainty. In the end, the whole of this book is greater than its parts and can serve as a worthy companion to a traditional manual of physical examination."--Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC)Proceedings

5 STAR DOODY'S REVIEW!
"Physical diagnosis has been taught to every medical student but this evidence-based approach now shows us why, presenting one of medicine's most basic tenets in a new and challenging light. The format is extraordinary, taking previously published material and updating the pertinent evidence since the initial publication, affirming or questioning or refining the conclusions drawn from the data.

"This is a book for everyone who has studied medicine and found themselves doubting what they have been taught over the years, not that they have been deluded, but that medical traditions have been unquestionably believed because there was no evidence to believe otherwise. The authors have uncovered the truth.

" This extraordinary, one-of-a-kind book is a valuable addition to every medical library."--Doody's Review Service

In the tradition of the famous Users' Guides to the Medical Literature, The JAMA series “The Rational Clinical Examination” was created to bring the principles of evidence-based medicine to the diagnostic process. Featuring specific clinical questions, numerous case examples, and precise summaries of available evidence, the RCE series was an instant hit.

Now for the very first time in book form, completely updated with new literature analyses, here is a uniquely practical, clinically relevant approach to the use of evidence in the content of physical examination. Going far beyond the scope of traditional physical examination texts, this invaluable resource compiles and presents the evidence-based meanings of signs, symptoms, and results from physical examination maneuvers and other diagnostic studies. Page after page, you'll find a focus on actual clinical questions and presentations, making it an incomparably practical resource that you'll turn to again and again.

Importantly, the high-yield content of The Rational Clinical Examination is significantly expanded and updated from the original JAMA articles, much of it published here for the first time. It all adds up to a definitive, ready-to-use clinical exam sourcebook that no student or clinician should be without.

FEATURES

• All the expert perspectives on the application of evidence-based medicine principles-with all the authority of the pioneering JAMA series, The Rational Clinical Examination
• Packed with updated, new, and previously unpublished information from the original JAMA articles
• Standardized template for every issue covered, including: Case Presentation; Why the Issue Is Clinically Important; Research and Statistical Methods Used to Find the Evidence Presented; The Sensitivity and Specificity of Each Key Result; Resolution of the Case Presentation; and the Clinical Bott

David Simel, MD, MHS,
Chief, Medicine Service
Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Professor of Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, NC

Drummond Rennie, MD
JAMA
Chicago, IL
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA