Life & Health Sciences
Medicine & Health
Clinical knowledge, public health and the evidence base underneath both — an area where bad information does measurable harm.
31 fields · 295 topics · 32 curated works
Fields within Medicine & Health
Human Anatomy & Physiology
11The map and the mechanism, prerequisite to everything else.
Gross Anatomy · Histology · Musculoskeletal Anatomy · Neuroanatomy (Clinical) · Cardiovascular System
Internal Medicine & Diagnosis
8The generalist's discipline — pattern recognition under uncertainty.
Clinical Reasoning · History & Physical Examination · Differential Diagnosis · Diagnostic Error · Multimorbidity
Cardiovascular Medicine
10The leading cause of death worldwide.
Coronary Artery Disease · Heart Failure · Arrhythmias · Electrocardiography · Hypertension
Neurology & Neurosurgery
11Disorders of the nervous system.
Stroke · Epilepsy · Multiple Sclerosis · Parkinson's Disease · Alzheimer's & Dementia
Oncology
11Cancer biology and its treatment.
Cancer Biology & Hallmarks · Carcinogenesis · Tumour Staging · Chemotherapy · Radiation Oncology
Infectious Disease
11Pathogens, transmission and control.
Bacterial Infections · Viral Infections · Fungal Infections · Parasitic Disease · Antimicrobial Therapy
Immunology & Rheumatology
8When the immune system attacks the wrong target.
Rheumatoid Arthritis · Systemic Lupus Erythematosus · Vasculitis · Spondyloarthropathies · Gout & Crystal Arthropathy
Endocrinology & Metabolism
9Hormonal regulation and its disorders.
Diabetes Mellitus · Insulin Resistance · Thyroid Disorders · Adrenal Disorders · Pituitary Disorders
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
9The gut, the liver and everything they influence.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease · Irritable Bowel Syndrome · Peptic Ulcer Disease · Liver Disease & Cirrhosis · Viral Hepatitis
Respiratory Medicine
9Airway, lung and gas exchange disorders.
Asthma · COPD · Pneumonia · Interstitial Lung Disease · Pulmonary Embolism
Nephrology & Urology
9Kidney function, filtration and the urinary tract.
Acute Kidney Injury · Chronic Kidney Disease · Dialysis · Kidney Transplantation · Electrolyte Disorders
Surgery
11Intervention with a scalpel, and the judgement of when not to.
Surgical Principles · General Surgery · Trauma Surgery · Vascular Surgery · Cardiothoracic Surgery
Emergency & Critical Care
10Medicine under time pressure with incomplete information.
Triage · Resuscitation & ACLS · Shock · Sepsis · Trauma Management
Anaesthesiology & Pain Medicine
8Controlled unconsciousness, and the management of pain.
General Anaesthesia · Regional Anaesthesia · Airway Management · Anaesthetic Pharmacology · Acute Pain Management
Paediatrics
8Medicine for patients who are not small adults.
Neonatology · Child Development · Childhood Immunisation · Paediatric Infectious Disease · Congenital Disorders
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
9Reproductive health, pregnancy and birth.
Antenatal Care · Labour & Delivery · Obstetric Complications · Maternal Mortality · Contraception
Psychiatry & Mental Health
13Clinical treatment of mental illness.
Depressive Disorders · Anxiety Disorders · Bipolar Disorder · Schizophrenia & Psychosis · PTSD & Trauma
Dermatology
8The largest organ, and the most visible diagnoses.
Eczema & Dermatitis · Psoriasis · Acne · Skin Infections · Skin Cancer
Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology
9Eyes, ears, nose and throat.
Refractive Error · Cataract · Glaucoma · Retinal Disease · Hearing Loss
Musculoskeletal & Orthopaedics
9Bones, joints, tendons and the injuries that limit people.
Fractures & Fixation · Joint Replacement · Sports Injuries · Back & Neck Pain · Osteoarthritis
Radiology & Medical Imaging
9Seeing inside without opening.
Radiography · Computed Tomography · Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Ultrasound · Nuclear Medicine & PET
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
10Where diagnoses are confirmed.
General Pathology · Histopathology · Cytopathology · Clinical Chemistry · Haematology
Pharmacology & Therapeutics
10What drugs do, and what they do that you did not want.
Pharmacokinetics · Pharmacodynamics · Drug Interactions · Adverse Drug Reactions · Drug Development Pipeline
Geriatrics & Palliative Care
9Medicine near the end of life, where goals change.
Ageing Physiology · Frailty · Falls & Mobility · Cognitive Decline · Polypharmacy in the Elderly
Sports & Exercise Medicine
8Performance, injury and the medicine of healthy bodies.
Exercise Prescription · Injury Prevention · Return to Play · Concussion in Sport · Strength & Conditioning Science
Nutrition Science
9Food and health — a field with unusually noisy evidence.
Macronutrients · Micronutrients & Deficiency · Energy Balance · Dietary Patterns · Nutritional Epidemiology & Its Limits
Public Health & Epidemiology
12Health at the level of populations rather than patients.
Study Design in Epidemiology · Disease Surveillance · Outbreak Investigation · Infectious Disease Modelling · Screening Programmes
Global Health
8Health where resources are the binding constraint.
Maternal & Child Health · Neglected Tropical Diseases · Malaria · Water, Sanitation & Hygiene · Health Systems Strengthening
Evidence-Based Medicine
11How to tell whether a medical claim is supported — the most transferable skill in this domain.
Levels of Evidence · Randomised Controlled Trials in Medicine · Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis · Number Needed to Treat · Absolute vs Relative Risk
Medical Ethics & Law
9The rules that constrain clinical action.
Informed Consent · Patient Autonomy · Confidentiality · Resource Allocation & Triage Ethics · End-of-Life Decision Making
History of Medicine
9How medicine became effective, mostly quite recently.
Ancient & Classical Medicine · Germ Theory · Antiseptic Surgery · Discovery of Antibiotics · Anaesthesia's Arrival
Reading in Medicine & Health
32Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
- BookThe Noonday DemonAndrew Solomon, 2001
Depression written from inside it and researched from outside it at once, refusing both the purely biological and purely social account.
- BookMountains Beyond MountainsTracy Kidder, 2003
Paul Farmer's argument, in practice, that cost-effectiveness arguments are usually a way of deciding whose lives are worth less.
- BookThe Great InfluenzaJohn M. Barry, 2004
The 1918 pandemic as a failure of institutions as much as of medicine — official reassurance killed people that the virus might not have.
- BookBad ScienceBen Goldacre, 2008
Dissects how health claims get manufactured — from bad trials to worse journalism — and gives the tools to check them.
- BookThe Checklist ManifestoAtul Gawande, 2009
In complex work, failure comes more often from ineptitude than ignorance, and a well-designed checklist closes that gap.
- BookThe Emperor of All MaladiesSiddhartha Mukherjee, 2010
A biography of cancer that doubles as a history of how clinical evidence replaced physician intuition.
- BookThe Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksRebecca Skloot, 2010
The cell line that built modern biology was taken without consent, and the family learned about it two decades later.
- BookTesting TreatmentsEvans, Thornton, Chalmers & Glasziou, 2011· Free
A plain-language guide to why fair tests of treatments are necessary and how to spot claims that lack them.
- BookDo No HarmHenry Marsh, 2014
A neurosurgeon on operating millimetres from someone's personality, and unusually honest about the cases he got wrong.
- BookBeing MortalAtul Gawande, 2014
Medicine optimises for survival when patients near the end of life are usually optimising for something else entirely.
- BookImmunePhilipp Dettmer, 2021
Makes the immune system followable as a system of interacting agents, which is the only way its complexity becomes learnable.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
- BookOn the Mode of Communication of CholeraJohn Snow, 1855
Maps cholera deaths to a single water pump and establishes epidemiological reasoning before germ theory existed.
- BookWest's Respiratory Physiology: The EssentialsJohn B. West, 1974
Compresses everything clinically necessary about breathing into a genuinely short book, and is the model for how a textbook can be brief.
- BookNaked to the BoneBettyann Holtzmann Kevles, 1997
A history of medical imaging from X-rays to MRI, and of how being able to see inside the body changed what counted as diagnosis.
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
- BookGray's AnatomyHenry Gray, 1858
The anatomical reference in continuous revision for over a century and a half — still the map every surgeon is working from.
- BookGoodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of TherapeuticsGoodman & Gilman, 1941
The reference on what drugs actually do, at the level of receptor and pathway rather than indication.
- BookHarrison's Principles of Internal MedicineHarrison et al., 1950
Organises medicine by presenting problem rather than by organ, which is how a patient actually arrives.
- BookRobbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of DiseaseRobbins & Cotran, 1957
Explains disease by mechanism rather than by symptom list, and is consequently the book that makes the rest of medicine cohere.
- BookThe Greatest Benefit to MankindRoy Porter, 1997
A history of medicine that is candid about how recently most of it started working, and how much was confident harm before that.
- BookWilliams ObstetricsJ. Whitridge Williams et al., 1903
In continuous revision for over a century, and a record of how maternal mortality was driven down by asepsis and measurement.
- BookNelson Textbook of PediatricsNelson et al., 1933
The reference on patients who are not small adults — different physiology, different diseases, and a moving developmental baseline.
- BookCampbell's Operative OrthopaedicsWillis C. Campbell et al., 1939
The operative reference for the musculoskeletal system, where the goal is restored mechanical function rather than cure.
- BookWilliams Textbook of EndocrinologyWilliams et al., 1950
The reference on the body's slow signalling system, where the feedback loops are the diagnosis.
- BookAdler's Physiology of the EyeAdler et al., 1950
The reference on the optics and neurology of vision, where the engineering constraints are unusually explicit.
- BookModern Nutrition in Health and DiseaseShils et al., 1955
The reference text, and a useful corrective to a popular literature that runs far ahead of what the trials actually support.
- BookFitzpatrick's Dermatology in General MedicineFitzpatrick et al., 1971
The reference on the one organ you can examine directly, and how often it is the first visible sign of an internal disease.
- BookSleisenger and Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver DiseaseSleisenger & Fordtran, 1973
The reference for the organ system that is simultaneously digestive, immune and endocrine, and rarely fails in only one of those ways.
- BookBrenner and Rector's The KidneyBarry M. Brenner & Floyd C. Rector, 1976
The reference on the organ that regulates nearly every parameter of the internal environment, and fails quietly until it fails completely.
- BookBraunwald's Heart DiseaseEugene Braunwald, 1980
The cardiology reference, and a record of the field that produced more mortality reduction than almost any other in medicine.
- BookMiller's AnesthesiaRonald D. Miller, 1981
The reference on deliberately suspending consciousness and reversing it, a procedure still not fully explained by the theory behind it.
- BookRosen's Emergency MedicineRosen et al., 1983
The reference for decisions made without a history, without a diagnosis, and without time — a genuinely different epistemic problem.
- BookBrukner & Khan's Clinical Sports MedicinePeter Brukner & Karim Khan, 1993
The reference on injury in active people, organised by the body region that hurts rather than by the tissue that failed.