Medical Microbiology Testing in Primary Care

” … a practical guide primarily for general practitioners but also for medical microbiology staff and others working in that field … provides a good understanding of the relevant principles in this field…[Quick Action Guides] consistently present a clear path from deciding to take a specimen to interpretation of the lab report and consideration of an antibiotic regimen … recommended for general practitioners, nurses, and medical microbiologists who want to improve their cooperation with respect to better patient care without getting lost in the mass of microbiologic expert knowledge.”
―Andreas Erich Zautner, Clinical Infectious Diseases

” … well written and answers many of the questions frequently asked by primary care teams. … The presentation style of this book is both delightful and engaging. The graphics and pictures are of the highest quality … .”
―Dr. Layth Alsaffar in The Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists

This book’s purpose is to help community-based primary care physicians and nurses, and laboratory-based microbiologists, better understand each others requirements in collecting and interpreting specimens, and thus to improve the quality of patient care.

The structure of this book focuses on three basic principles: deciding whether a specimen is clinically necessary; how to collect the specimen effectively, and how to interpret the laboratory report. At the beginning of each chapter a case scenario is used to identify critical steps in processing a particular specimen type, followed by quick action guides to assess current practice and implement necessary changes in procedure.

The award winning author of Clinical Bacteriology* has brought together a microbiologist, a primary care physician and a specialist in infectious disease, to produce this concise, highly illustrated guide, of value alike to primary care physicians, nurses, microbiologists and students.

* BMA student book of the year 2005

Key Features:

• Written by and for physicians and microbiologists.
• Case scenarios highlight critical steps.
• Quick action guides for day-today practice.
• Contains a wealth of colour diagrams and photomicrographs