Pathoma

SDStudent1 · Sep 8, 2017

Brining it back to the top.

Dodongo, APRN, NP · Sep 8, 2017

I read the pathophysiology book assigned to me for my pathophysiology class: Essentials of Pathophysiology by Carol Mattson Porth.

Then I read: The Pocket Companion to Pathologic Basis of Disease by Robbins and Cotran.

And when I say read, I mean read. Word for word.

Then I listened to Dr. Goljan's audio lectures in the car over a couple months as I drove to work.

Then I read Andreoli and Carpenter's Cecil Essentials of Medicine. All of it. It's a much more clinically oriented text.

In that order.

Medical students studying for step 1 will go through either Gojan or Pathoma, and it's all about preference. Many students will cover both if they can. From what I can gather, Goljan is more about integrating path in a clinical sense, whereas pathoma is straight path.

I feel I have a pretty strong understanding of pathology/pathophysiology and a wide differential list to choose from because of this. I think using pathoma can only be to your benefit.

Dodongo, APRN, NP · Sep 8, 2017

And I always have to give a 5 star recommendation to "Clinical Pathophysiology made ridiculously simple" because it does just that. Takes a difficult pathologic process and makes it SO easy to understand.

SDStudent1 · Sep 10, 2017

Thank you for your response. You sound like you had a pretty good system down. My biggest problem is that I feel the book they want us to use isn't very good. Although I will have to use it to some degree, I was hoping to find a resource that was more digestible. Pathoma seems to go over high yield information and is, so far, presents it in a way that is easily understood. The first two chapter go over pretty complicated concepts (1. Cellular adaptation, injury and death 2. Inflammation & immune system) but does so in a way that makes it easily understood. I agree with you on the "clinical pathology MRS" and I would almost say Pathoma is similar to that, but in video form.

I also found another website that offers video on medical subjects and was thinking about giving it a try. It called Lecturio. I was planning to use Lecturio to review physiology prior to using Pathoma to study pathology. I would then use the books for anything missing. I use Anki for online flash cards and can create them pretty quickly by scanning pages from my resources onto my computer and screenshot section of it to the back of the cards.

I just really want to make sure I am choosing the right resources to begin with. It my first class of my NP program so I am a little nervous. Have heard a ton of horror stories about Pathology and Pharm. You gave me some pretty good ideas though so thanks a bunch for sharing.

Dodongo, APRN, NP · Sep 10, 2017

I would say if you really want to get a good foundation in pathology, you should just get Robbins and read that. Most medical students use this in their pathology course in school, and pathoma is just going to give you bullet point summary of this book. Like I said, I used "baby Robbins" because as an NP I am never going to be looking at tissue under slides. A lot of the focus of "grown-up" or "teenage/intermediate" Robbins is histology and it didn't seem high yield for me. But baby Robbins was awesome. It gives you the molecular basis for TONS of different pathologies so you don't really have to memorize s/sx because it just naturally follows, and it doesn't focus on identifying any cells/tissue morphologies. My educational background makes that a bit easier for me, though, I think.

I've seen a lot of NPs on this forum saying knowing this information isn't helpful or worthwhile to them. I'm going to err on the side of knowing more than I need, however. Physicians seem to think it's important.

SDStudent1 · Sep 12, 2017

I agree, I looked into the "Baby Robbins" and it seemed like it would be a really good option. It should be here tomorrow. Thanks again for all the tips.

Dodongo, APRN, NP · Sep 15, 2017

I agree, I looked into the "Baby Robbins" and it seemed like it would be a really good option. It should be here tomorrow. Thanks again for all the tips.

No problem. I went a little overboard and got intermediate Robbin's as well, but I only cracked it a few times when I thought baby Robbins wasn't enough detail.

I think you'll be more than pleased with baby Robbins. Good luck!

SDStudent1 · Apr 1, 2018

I just want to follow up because I like when other OP explain how everything worked out. I ended up using Pathoma as my primary source, "Baby" Robins Pathologic Basis of Disease for areas of confusion. I then used the professors lecture/PP slides to study specifically for the test. I felt this was really effective at helping me to really understand the material & do well on the tests. Pathoma was amazing at explaining Patho in an easily understood way. The Prof lectures helped me to spot what the prof. thought was important and likely going to be tested. I then created flashcards of the important information into Anki, a spaced repetition flashcard website. After the course was over I deleted all cards that I didn't consider to be high yielding information. Anki continues to show me the remaining cards to this day at increasing interval. I have cards that are scheduled to be seen for a year. Using this method, I felt I had a more in depth understanding of the material, and Anki has helped me to retain all the important info months/years later. This in depth understanding has helped tremendously during my Pharm class and I think will do the same for Assessment. Like Dodongo, I went overboard and bought several books that I later felt where unnecessary. If I had to to it over again, I would buy Pathoma (videos + book) and "baby" robbins. I would not buy the assigned text book and just use Prof. Lecture/slides instead. Thank you Dodongo for your response and suggestions.