by Ernest Suresh

This  book follows the revised format of the Practical Assessment Clinical  Examination Skills (PACES) exam conducted by the Royal College of  Physicians in the UK, where ‘clinical consultation skills’ will be  tested twice in two separate stations. Thus, coming closest to what  doctors do in real life: obtain a structured history, perform a focussed  examination and explain the problem to the patient in lay terms. This  book takes readers through a rational approach to 63 common presenting  symptoms or laboratory abnormalities in medicine. It is aimed at  improving the clinical consultation skills of young doctors and  preparing them for the new format of MRCP PACES. Readers will learn:

1. The approaches to common presenting symptoms and blood test abnormalities.

2. What questions to ask the patient and why.

3. What to check when they examine the patient.

4. What to tell the patient and how to convey this information in lay terms without jargon.

5. How to investigate the problem, how to manage and when to refer to a specialist.

Key Features

•  This book follows a narrative style with each case being discussed in a  story-like manner, helping readers understand the process of narrowing  the differential diagnosis, just like solving a crime!

•  It includes a ‘What to tell the patient’ section, where the main points  to convey to the patient are highlighted and fully dialogued to help  readers understand how complex medical jargon should be conveyed in  layperson’s terms.

• It simplifies several complex  and difficult-to-understand topics like haematological malignancies,  thrombotic microangiopathy, glomerulonephritis, systemic vasculitis and  eosinophilia.