Medical Microbiology Testing in Primary Care

<p>The book’s purpose is to help community-based primary care physicians and nurses and laboratory-based microbiologists better understand each other’s requirements in collecting and interpreting specimens and thus to improve the quality of patient care while saving resources and reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescription.<br><br>The book’s structure focuses on three basic principles: deciding whether a specimen is clinically necessary; how to collect the specimen effectively and how to interpret the laboratory report.<br><br>Individual chapters cover all the main specimen types sent to the laboratory from primary care. At the beginning of each chapter a case scenario is used to identify critical steps in processing a particular specimen type followed by quick action guides to assess current practice and implement necessary changes in procedure. <br><br>The award winning author of <em>Clinical Bacteriology</em> (BMA student book of the year 2005) has brought together a microbiologist a primary care physician and a specialist in infectious disease to produce this concise highly illustrated guide of value alike to primary care physicians nurses microbiologists and medical students.</p>