The Bioterrorism Sourcebook Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9780071440868 ISBN-10: 0071440860 Copyright: 2006 Edition: 1st Authors: Grey, Michael R., Spaeth, Kenneth R., Doody's Expert Review    Score: 87 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Malford Pillow,  MD  (University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine) Description This is a comprehensive but concise guideline for prevention, identification, and treatment of bioterrorism threats, primarily from the healthcare worker's perspective. Purpose The book is intended as a "one-stop source of clinical and public health guidance" for any frontline healthcare and public health workers dealing with the immediate and long-term needs of victims of biological, chemical, nuclear, or radiologic events. It attempts to integrate a vast amount of information into a detailed yet easy to use reference to heighten bioterrorism preparedness. This is an extremely useful endeavor because, as the book points out, there are very few references for bioterrorism response that combine the various and dynamic aspects that the frontline healthcare worker will need to quickly and effectively respond to bioterrorism threats. Overall, the book meets the authors' stated objectives in providing a concise, detailed book that is useful both as a teaching text and as a focused, quick reference for on-the-spot diagnosis and management of bioterrorism threats. Audience The stated audience includes medical students, physicians, public officials, and other healthcare workers that will be on the frontline of bioterrorism response on the local level. However, the book more effectively addresses concerns of healthcare workers and physicians than those of public officials due to its format and focus on initial patient management. Features The book's engaging and informational format will be familiar to many medical students and physicians. Many chapters on specific agents start with a clinical vignette and then outline key diagnosis and management issues. The book is designed such that these same key diagnosis and management points can be easily and quickly referenced in table format. Multiple black-and-white pictures throughout the book detail the presentation and progression of many disease processes. The book could be improved with color pictures to aid differentiating various types of rashes and lesions seen with various agents. The selected bibliography acts as a further resource by outlining various Internet sources that can be referenced by chapter or section. Assessment This book takes on the tremendous task of creating a concise yet complete reference for healthcare workers and public officials and, overall, it succeeds. This is especially critical given the dynamic and expansive subject of bioterrorism. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 8 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 10 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 3 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 4 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 3 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 5 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 4 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 4 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book N/A 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? N/A ©2010 Doody Enterprises, Inc.