Nobel prizes for physiology and medicine are given in a useful chart. Appendixes list medical and professional abbreviations. The British origin of the book is evident in the list of contributors, the British spelling of words, and the focus on British medicine and medical practice. This focus is balanced somewhat by comparisons with the U.S. in many of the articles. The long articles are readable and easily understood by the layperson, but the definitions of medical terms use clinical language that demands specialized knowledge.
Definitions are cross-referenced using see and see also .
Asterisks before a word indicate internal cross-references. This placement of the asterisk can be disconcerting to the reader's eye, especially in a five-line definition with five asterisks. There is much that is of interest here for the browsing reader, students, and medical practitioners, but this work in no way should be viewed as a replacement for standard medical dictionaries and encyclopedias. This rich, intelligent guide to the state of medical science is a thoroughly revised and edited version of Walton's massive Oxford Companion to Medicine. Accessible, convenient and up to date, it is an invaluable reference for doctors, students, and medical professionals of all kinds.