Quick Look Drug Book 2007 (Quick Look Drug Book)

Warning: Strong opinions follow!

I hate this book. Sorry, Mr. Lance, but I really do.

I'm a medical transcriptionist of 12 years. I've tried this book OVER and OVER and OVER again through the years at the urgings of other MTs. I just can't stand it. I really have tried to make friends with it.

Perhaps it's better for other professions, but for a transcriptionist, it's cumbersome at best. Don't bother looking up a brand name drug; it takes a cross reference and fumbling through flimsy, thin pages to get you to the proper generic name. (unless, of course, my education and decade of experience is so lacking and I'm actually expected to have the knowledge of a pharmacy tech so I can use my reference book!) Then you have to weed through paragraphs, or sometimes a page, of information to get to what an MT needs: (1) Confirm this drug that you barely understood a sloppy doctor dictate actually IS for the condition he's talking about. (2) Confirm the dosage you just heard mumbled by said mushmouth. (3) Confirm any funky capitalization that big pharm has decided they need to use to pep up the name of the newest pill on the market.

And, frankly, I worry about an MT who has to rely on a book like this. You should know the common meds and their common dosages already. Yes, even a newbie. That's what training is for. When I started doing MT, I had a fabu reference library. I honestly thought I'd need to know everything about every pathology. I've gotten rid of two-thirds of my collection. It's about staying up to date and staying efficient, not about being a reference librarian. And this tome falls into the latter category.

The only reason I even gave this two stars is for snazzy appendices, including a Therapeutic Category Index, which is lacking in the book I prefer (see below).

Sorry, but I'm quite busy enough with transcribing; I don't need to slow myself down any further by wading through a book which is as inefficient as the Yellow Pages.

I tried AGAIN (!) with the 2007 copy. Forget it. I'd send it back if I hadn't spilled something on it. If you are an MT and you think this will speed up your day, do yourself a favor and order it on trial from the manufacturer; you can send it back that way after 30 days. (sorry Amazon!)

Or... do what I'm about to do right now. Buy the Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book. But, you say, it's missing a drug already for 2007? Google it and write it in the margins. You're STILL saving yourself time.