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Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine
11th edition (Published June 2025)
Edited by David Randall, John Booth and Kate Wiles
Published by Elsevier
Cost £62.99 (currently discounted on the publisher’s website at the time of review)
I suspect this book is equally well known to both undergraduate and postgraduate medics. It was first published in 1987, so I suspect it has been widely used in medical schools as well as by doctors looking to refresh or use it for exams. It also transcends and offers support to primary and secondary care practitioners, and few medical textbooks can claim to cover all these demographic groups.
It is now in a very mature 11th edition, and I reviewed the paperback version, which, on first inspection, is a monster in terms of size! It is thick and heavy, runs to 1757 pages, and is certainly not portable, but it does include a digital twin bundled with the purchase price (more later). It seems voluminous, and on closer inspection, it is.
This book seems to cover an amazing number of topics in significant depth, and all the main specialties are covered as well as young adults and the elderly plus obstetric medicine. The contributors seem to be mainly UK-based, but to add a global feel, there is an international advisory board. As in keeping with modern textbooks, there is a top-class layout with illustrative figures and boxes and an excellent use of colour and plenty of text that is easy to read.
Clinical medicine has evolved enormously since this book first appeared, and it has clearly evolved alongside the advances in modern medicine. For example, Chapter 11 on page 175 is devoted to Acute Medicine and covers the topic brilliantly. I also looked up a specific topic, Myasthenia Gravis, on page 973. I found a well-written, easy-to-read and detailed account. I noticed in the index that the entry for Myasthenia Gravis was shaded green, which highlights conditions associated with the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA). This is another handy feature that will appeal to a certain group of people.
This book is quite frankly fantastic, a modern review of clinical medicine with excellent, wide-ranging coverage, and it will appeal to a wide audience, from medical students to established healthcare professionals. Although the book is large and heavy, thankfully, the purchase price includes access to a web and app-based version. Both are easy to use. I downloaded the app-based products on an iPhone and an iPad, and they were worth the purchase price alone, never mind the book thrown in.
Having the book’s digital contents plus some extras on a mobile device is a huge boon and is included within the purchase price of the book. Given what you get with this book, this is an excellent price for a superb product. At the time of writing, there was a significant discount on this book and its digital accompaniments, making it an even better value for money.
