HAVE YOU EVER WISHED FOR QUICK ACCESS to information to promptly acquaint yourself on your sickness before venturing to a doctor office? Another question, if you are a doctor, have you ever run out of words when describing diagnosis and treatment to your patients or sometimes wished to consolidate your health education to your patient in writing? If you have said yes to any of these questions, you share the vision of John Murtagh's volume, Patient Education, first published in 1992 and now into its fifth edition. The problem with this type of compilation is deciding what to include and what not to include since there are a myriad of medical conditions. The author tells us he started to polish his skills in 1979 when he was involved in producing patient education pamphlets for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The current volume reflects such an evolution and includes descriptions of 223 conditions all duly updated to reflect any twist or turn in the field. he intended audience of this volume is patients via their family doctors. The volume is a must-have volume for medical students, all medical practitioners and, for that matter, any inquisitive mind. Each ailment is described without the jargon often common in medical texts. The book provides the protocol that doctors can use in their clinical settings. In addition to describing illnesses, preventive health advice, some self-help tips for compliance and alternative interventions and the broad field of health promotion are all clearly covered in A4 pages that can be easily photocopied.