Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, Edition 3 3rd Edition

This is a must have for anyone that needs to know drugs and bugs for work or school. This book gives you all that any clinical professional or student needs to know about the bugs and drugs designed to kill them. Great mnemonics and visuals to help the student preparing for boards or just a test during med or pharm school. This book assumes that the reader has some knowledge of microbiology and drugs like betalactams but it will not be over the head of even a first year student in any professional school. I bought the book as a supplement to my bugs and drugs class but ended up using it as a study guide for almost every test. The memory tools this book has worked so well I remember the stuff over 5 years later. If you are a visual learner you will be glad you have this book. The author uses great caricature type memory devices and I found them very easy to recall during tests. Next to the illustration is a description explaining the caricature and all the reasons it is drawn the way it is. They are usually funny so they tend to stay with you when you need to recall why a drug works on one bacteria and not another.BUY IT YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

I am using this for USMLE review. There are plentiful mnemonics and cartoons in the book which help a great deal with memorization. This could be the best review book in the Ridiculously Simple Series. It has definitely helped me. The exam is still pending and therefore I cannot judge this based on my score. You cannot base your sole Micro preparation on this one book alone. You will have to have BRS Microbiology or NMS Microbiology along side this. You may need Zinsser on occasion. The good thing about this book is you can work through it quickly compared to some of the other books. When I receive my score I will further preface my remarks here. This is a good starting point however.

I'm a second year medical student and bought this book for our microbio block. I found it to be a zillion times more helpful than any of the assigned textbooks. The authors include mnemonics, hilarious --- and often risque --- pictures, and stories to help you keep the different bugs and drugs straight. The image of a black cat (catalase) walking by a hospital staff (Staph) is permanently drilled into my brain. ;) I'm taking the USMLE in June and am planning on using this book for the bulk of my microbio review. Check it out!

This is a very useful book if you are in rush (like me) to get basic concepts of Clinial Microbiology. It is structured in 7 chapters, dealing with the main culprits in the Bacteriology, Micology, Virology, Parasitology and "the very strange critters", Virions. This books is not a comprehensive Microbiology Treat, but a shortened, easy-to-read and to to remember sort of vademecum. The first chapters deal with the general bacterial taxonomy, structure and genetics; the next ones present the most common two-to-four types of Gram positive and negative bacteria, acid-fast mycobacterium, bacteria without walls and principles of antibacterial medications.The chapter dedicated to Viruses is as simple and clear as the previous ones, presenting the most common ortho and paramyxo-viridae, hepatitis and herpes viridae, retroviridae and general antiviral medications. Only protozoans and helminths are presented in the chapter dedicated to parasites. A short chapter presents the virions. Finally, the last two chapters deal with two as modern as worrisome problems around the world, antimicrobial resistance and bioterrorism. No real pictures of the membrane lipid bilayer or colony features on the plates are to be found in this book, instead the authors opted for really funny and meaningful charicatures meant to help the reader in remembering the concepts. An easy-to-read, but mostly to remember, book presenting the most common characters in Microbiology in a modern, thorough and really "ridiculously" simple manner.

I am an internal medicine Attending phyisician. There are many other resources available to me for reference (eg 5 min Clinical Consult, uptodate etc) but still i decided to buy this book. Reason? it cuts to the chase and gives clinically pertinent information that i need on a day to day basis. I think med students would benefit from it too especially those who are preparing for their boards. For the med students take home point is: we need to go back to the baiscs even during clinical practice.

newer publications are available, and this book not only is frustrating due to repetition but is almost ridiculous in nature.

Bought it for a penny plus shipping. Good review/overview of clinical microbiology. I did not find the mnemonics and pictures overly helpful for memorization, but then again, I am not studying the book actively, just have it on the shelf for a reference. It does have a good section on antibiotics, there interaction with microbes and treatment explanations. I found this very helpful, to have both the microbe and treatment discussed in the same book. For what I paid for it, it's a great buy, BUT I don't think it would be a value at full price.

Really helped during my college microbiology class. I would recommend this to all medical students, nurses, doctors etc. Great visuals and easy to read and understand.