December 11, 2012

A Review of Joslin's Diabetes Deskbook


It is with some trepidation that I do this review. In the six days, I have had the book; I have been reading more in one book than I have in a long time. The book is well thought out and much more descriptive than I had anticipated from the excerpts I have read. Yes, it is technical at times, but for me this is great as I now have some explanations to many ideas that had been too vague for me in the past. As a blogger, this book answers many questions for me. I hope that it will make me a more knowledgeable blogger and able to transmit this information to others.

Now I have the task of rereading and looking up some of the terms that I am not familiar with or even know. Medical terminology has never been one of my strong points and I am learning now. Thank goodness for medical dictionaries!

There are times in reading that you are referred back to previous information and tables and this is disconcerting for me. I admit I am used to technical books where sometimes information is duplicated to avoid going back and forth while reading. In technical manuals, we would occasionally have inserts to a publication that could be removed and become readily available to be viewed without hunting the pages referred to and loosing where you were. Granted 714 pages is a lot of information and information duplication would have added pages.

In general, I could appreciate the order of discussion and the table of contents is descriptive enough to make topics easily located. Unless you know what you are looking for, the index can be confusing. This is because the correct medical term is used instead of the common terms used by patients. Yes, there are some terms I know from research reading and common terms are used when they have been accepted by people. This is generally determined by the American Diabetes Association.

Since the number of excerpts from the book is still under 25, there are many topics that have not been covered. It will be interesting to compare more excerpts to the book.

For those that do not follow the dogma of ADA, this book is not for you. ADA is often mentioned and information is quoted. While I am not following much of the ADA line of thinking, it is interesting the amount of time the term individual is used. I would say that in most cases, treatment is tailored for the individual. I have found one topic when I feel that the individual is treated to a one-size-fits-all solution, but I will leave that for another blog.

I have enjoyed my first reading and I will be returning the loaned copy as soon as my book arrives. I have a lot of reading to do again and will be using many of the excerpts for blog ideas. A statement that I read when researching the book, “This book is not for easy reading and may not be for patients.” This is somewhat in line, but the book is readable and if you enjoy reading technical writings, this book will not disappoint you. There are sections of easy reading and areas of technical information. The excerpts are mostly taken from the easy reading sections.

No comments: