Comprehensive Handbook of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Kindle Edition – 2nd Edition) by Zheng vs. Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Infertility: Handbook for Clinicians iPad app

by Jon Steller, MD

For years these two handbooks, in addition to the John’s Hopkins Manual of Gynecology and Obstetrics, have been competing for white coat real estate among OBGYN residents. All three of these resources provide adequate (and invaluable) information regarding the diagnosis and management of common obstetric and gynecologic disease-states. Interns may argue why they prefer one handbook over the other when analyzing their comprehensiveness or questioning why one another’s white coats are lopsided, but the most important feature of any handbook is its accessibility. Now that we have entered the digital age, Amazon has intelligently created a smooth interface for students and residents to read and annotate their favorite books using their Kindle app on every mobile device. Other companies create apps for those very devices hoping they might be more convenient to the sleep-deprived user.

And some of those apps developed for medical students and residents have been amazing! Look to Medscape and Epocrates to see the standard for efficiency and accessibility. Dr. Gordon and Scrub Hill Press attempted to make such an app, but unfortunately failed miserably. The concept of turning their handbook into an app is great, and the search function is truly quick and easy to use. However, once you find what you are looking for in your search, all efficiency is lost in trying to access the information. Instead of using appropriate index words to serve as quicklinks to a block of text regarding a topic such as “Ovarian Cancer”, the user must toggle back and forth between the index and pages that might only have one sentence of text in it with the rest of the space completely blank. This doesn’t get any more egregious than when trying to look at the differences in the various stages of ovarian cancer. To make matters worse, the app is more expensive than ordering the handbook to carry around with you.

In contrast, the Kindle edition of Zheng’s Handbook is even more amazing than the paper copy. Apple processors can execute extremely fast searches through the text for targeted searches, and the ability to use the contents of the book as quicklinks for any section one may want to read works very well. For example, one can select ovarian cancer from the contents and be instantly taken to that section featuring an overview, screening, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, pre-op workup, staging, treatment and surveillance over a few pages. The user can change the font, size, color of the background, brightness in the top corner of the Kindle app, and efficiently switch from the section their are reading back to the contents with the click of a button. And the Kindle version is even cheaper than the imitation leather version. All of these positives may be attributed to the John’s Hopkins Manual as well. The Kindle version of their manual is half the price of their paper version, however the fact that the book features twice the information than Zheng’s may or may not be desirable to the user. The ability to highlight the text, search it efficiently, and zoom in on images makes reading textbooks and handbooks on the Kindle amazing. It won’t be long before all of our textbooks and handbooks have quicklinks to interactive content such as quizzes, audio features, and videos. Keep an eye on the App Store though, because I am sure there will be better and better apps to help all of us students and residents continue to learn in a more efficient manner.