Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (CD-ROM)
CMAJ 1997;157:1437
© Canadian Medical Association
9th ed. Edited by Joel G. Hardman, Lee E. Limbird, Perry B. Molinoff, Raymond W. Ruddon and Alfred Goodman Gilman. Illust. McGrawHill Ryerson Ltd., Whitby, Ont. 1996. $181.25. ISBN 0-07-864186-1
| Overall rating: |
Excellent |
| Strengths: |
Comprehensive; easy, fast searching |
| Weaknesses: |
No drug interaction program; no section dedicated to pregnancy and lactation |
| Audience: |
All physicians |
This stalwart and trusted old reference has been on my bookshelf for 35 years. Its release on CD-ROM is a welcome enhancement. There is still the happy marriage of basic science and clinical utility, but now with the speed of a CD-ROM. It is current, too, even including a section on gene-based therapy. Also included are tables, graphs and diagrams.
I am a solo GP in a remote Yukon town. My hardware is a modest PC Pentium 160 with 16 MB RAM and a 4X CD-ROM drive. I used this CD daily for a month to test it in everyday practice.
My first priority is quick, pithy and current overviews on drugs that I might prescribe. This software delivers just that and more. The writing is clean and precise. A pleasurable plus is frequent spicy snippets of fascinating history: where the drugs were first found and how their usage has evolved.
When I searched "heart failure" I found a solid modern approach, summaries of the drug classes and references for current review articles. When I searched "thyroid" and "cholesterol" there was a cogent description of their relationship. When I searched "progesterone" and "intramuscular" and "contraception" many of my questions on this new (for Canada) indication were answered. When I searched "mefloquine" I received information as current as that of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
A bonus is 6 years of abstracts from 50 prestigious journals. Although they are fun to browse, it was cumbersome to find a specific abstract cited in the txThis is a minor annoyance, however.
Lacking on this CD-ROM is a drug interaction program. More and more patients, especially the elderly, are taking incredible cocktails of pills and potions. The combinations and permutations are fraught with much danger. Another addition could be a section on drugs during pregnancy and lactation. May the editors rise to the challenge and add these features to a wonderful CD-ROM.
All in all, this is very useful software for the desk of any busy physician.
Richard B. Fast, MD
Faro, Yukon
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