3 Review(s)

About the BookAuthor's Note---> The purpose of this book is to help you pass the exam. In order to give you the guidance and techniques you need, I have built on the stated goals and tasks of the USMLE by drawing on my years of seeing patients and teaching medical students and residents. This work is also an outgrowth of my experience teaching Kaplans live Step 2 CS class in Chicago, where I refined my teaching to meet the needs of an international community of physicians. As a result, the text emphasizes those parts of the patient encounter that seem most daunting for the international medical graduate.Now renamed USMLE Step 2 CS: Core Cases (formerly USMLE Step 2 CS: Complex Cases), this edition is thoroughly updated to address the changes to the Step 2 CS exam as of June 17, 2012. Every effort has been made to align this new study guide with the information freely available at www.usmle.org. If there are any discrepancies, follow what is on the USMLE site.Updates to this edition include:• Explanation of the new scoring method is given in the Basics section.• Explanation of the new Diagnostic Reasoning documentation, now required to support your diagnosis in the Patient Note, is given in both the Basics section and new Appendix C.• Explanation of other changes in the Patient Note is given in the Basics section and in the cases.• All 35 existing cases have been modified to fit the new 3-diagnosis maximum and to highlight the interper¬sonal skills needed to collect the information.• Eight new common cases have been added to expose you to more scenarios that may be similar to what you will encounter.• Lastly, new material has been added on the Differential Diagnosis, both in the Basics section and through¬out the cases.While revising this book, I was struck how much better the new version of the exam is. It is less artificial, and you can more easily "just pretend" you are seeing patients at your own practice site.Certainly there is more than one correct way to take a history. The memory devices and phrasing of ques¬tions that I present are just one way to successfully perform a patient encounter. The key is having a consis¬tent, organized way to rapidly collect the history and physical exam you need while having an excellent bed¬side manner and supporting the patient's needs.With the aging of America and the predicted doctor shortage, you are needed here. If you internalize the com¬munication and interpersonal skills and adopt a methodical way of collecting and organizing the information into a written plan, you will have a long and successful career and provide comfort and care to thousands.I'm glad I could play a small part. Phil Brottman