This book is directed to practitioners who care for ambulatory adult patients. The purposes of the book are (a) to provide an in-depth account of the evaluation, management, and long-term course of common clinical problems that are addressed in the ambulatory setting, and (b) to provide guidance for recognizing problems that require either referral for specialized care or hospitalization and for appreciating the expected course of those problems.
Three principles have guided the preparation of each edition of Principles of Ambulatory Medicine.
With the seventh edition, Doctors Nicholas H. Fiebach, David E. Kern, Patricia A. Thomas, and Roy C. Ziegelstein have become the Editors, and Doctors L. Randol Barker and Philip D. Zieve have become Consulting Editors. All four of the Editors served as Associate Editors for the sixth edition. They played major roles in the expansion and reorganization of that edition, including the addition of seventeen new chapters and many new authors.
For the seventh edition, updating and revising of all chapters have been based on evidence from recent clinical trials, on current consensus-based recommendations for many conditions, and on the comments of those who have used the book. There are new sections on Bioterrorism, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and eye surgery for refractive errors.
Principles of Ambulatory Medicine is extensively cross-referenced both to avoid redundancy and to facilitate access to useful information contained elsewhere in the book. In addition, for easy reference, the key topics in each chapter are presented in outline form at the beginning of the chapter. For the seventh edition, Specific References cited in the text are listed at the end of each chapter, and General References, many of them websites, are found at the following internet address: http://www.hopkinsbayview.org/PAMreferences.