Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation

Dr Provan is currently Honorary Reader in Autoimmune Haematology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He studied molecular genetics at Leicester University before studying medicine. After junior medical posts in the UK, I undertook research at The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 1993-4 on an American Traveling fellowship awarded by the Medical Research Council. As a general haematologist, his main area of interest within the field of haematology is immunohaematology which includes diseases such as autoimmune thrombocytopenia (ITP), neutropenia and haemolytic anaemia. He has written several medical books including Molecular Haematology (Blackwell Science), Oxford Handbook of Clinical Haematology and Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, and the ABC of Clinical Haematology (BMJ books).

Being a member of the superb Oxford Handbook series, I automatically assume this book will be very good and put very simply, it is very good and certainly lives up to its heritage. Dont be put off by the title handbook; this is a chunky but portable book that is full of useful information about the numerous tests we order on a daily as well as infrequent basis. The net result is a book that many of us would want to own and a book in the right hands is likely to be used often.

• 1: The Patient 1: Drew Provan: Symptoms & signs 2: Investigations 2: Colin Dayan: Endocrinology & metabolism 3: Vanessa Fogo and Drew Provan: Haematology 4: Gavin Spickett: Immunology & allergy 5: Prof Brian Angus: Infectious & tropical diseases 6: Andrew R. Houghton: Cardiology 7: Emma Greig: Gastroenterology 8: Joanna Brown: Respiratory medicine 9: Martyn Bracewell: Neurology 10: Charlie Tomson and Sarah McLoskey: Renal medicine 11: Alison Jones: Poisoning & overdose 12: Suzanne Lane: Rheumatology 13: Tanya Chawla: Radiology 14: Jim Ballinger and Gopinath Gnanasegaran: Nuclear medicine