The At A Glance series is a highly regarded set of short textbooks for medical students and junior doctors. This series aims to break down complex topics into smaller, manageable sections.
There are a range of books available covering all aspects of medicine and clinical sciences. The publishers, Wiley-Blackwell have teamed up with noted developers, MedHand to release some of this series in a universal app format for the iPhone/iPad.
The first book to be released in app format is Anatomy At A Glance.
This popular book is available for both iPhone and iPad. Each chapter is divided into sections based around different anatomical locations such as the Head & Neck or Upper Limb. There is an excellent selection of sections which enable users to find relevant anatomy quickly.
The user interface is intuitive and easy to use while the inclusion of search, history and bookmark functions allows articles to be found with impressive ease.
There is excellent use of hyperlinks which allow users to explore the anatomy around the topic. e.g. reading about nerves in the upper arm includes a link to the brachial plexus to explore other nerves in this region. The clinical notes that are included serve to highlight the main anatomical issues and pathology that may arise in each region.
My main critique of this app is the lack of picture integration within each section. Currently each section contains a few paragraphs of text related to a particular anatomical area.
However, the figures which are related to this text are on their own page. While the images are labeled and stored in a high resolution, the continuous back and forth navigation between text and figure can be frustrating at times.
Each image page may contain up to four figures with little or no accompanying text. This may not always be such a problem in other textbook apps; however, anatomy is a very visual topic and it is helpful to be able to see the accompanying text.
Price:
- $32.99
Likes:
- Intuitive user interface with a range of navigation options
- Universal app
- High resolution images with labels
Dislikes:
- Figures are not stored on same page as accompanying text
- No landscape mode on iPhone
Overall Rating:
- Anatomy At A Glance makes a highly successful transition from paper to digital
- While there are some potential improvements, this is a decent first attempt for Wiley-Blackwell
- Those looking for a digital copy of Anatomy At A Glance will not go far wrong with this app
