The Med School Resources series is a compilation of the most useful resources for studying medicine. To check out the other articles, click on the links below:
AMBOSS
What is it: AMBOSS is a medical knowledge platform for doctors and students. Since it was created specifically with medical education in mind, it is highly targeted towards medical students. They even have a Qbank and intelligent learning features to help students study smarter and score higher.
How I use it: While the “intelligent” learning features and question banks sound great, I’ve never used them, since these are based on US step and shelf exams. (I have to focus on mastering my school’s content first.) I mainly use AMBOSS for their clinical articles (there are 1200+ in their library). Each article is on a specific medical topic and distils relevant knowledge without excessive detail, making it concise yet more than sufficient for medical school.
Why it’s trustworthy: They claim to have developed their content via a rigorous internal peer-reviewed protocol consisting of over 50 physicians in collaboration with medical students who have scored in the top percentiles on their USMLE® and NBME® shelf exams.
The cost: The huge downside is that AMBOSS is not free. There’s a monthly (US$9.99) or yearly (US$89) subscription fee, with additional cost to upgrade to unlimited questions in their Qbank. They do offer a 5-day free trial, or you could try applying for their AMBOSS Access Scholarship, which grants access for up to 6 months.
Take a look: View the AMBOSS article on Myocardial infarction as an example:
StatPearls
What is it: StatPearls is a comprehensive library of more than 8,500 peer-reviewed PubMed indexed articles covering every specialty in healthcare. Just like AMBOSS, it was created with medical education in mind.
How I use it: I use StatPearls for their medical reference articles. These are available both on NCBI Bookshelf and the Article Library on their website. Usually I simply google. The articles are very comprehensive and more in-depth than AMBOSS articles. The content is well-organised. For instance, an article on a condition or disease state would typically be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Etiology, Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, History and Physical, Evaluation, Treatment / Management, Differential Diagnosis, Prognosis, Complications, and Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes.
Why it’s trustworthy: The content is written by 7,600 medical authors and editors, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated. Author information and last updated dates are provided for each article, and references are peer-reviewed journal articles.
The cost: The reference articles are completely free, making it a very good alternative to AMBOSS and UpToDate. They do charge for their other features, such as CME for physicians and USMLE® questions for students (both of which you do not need at this point, if you’re a medical student in Singapore).
Take a look: View the StatPearls article on Acute Myocardial Infarction as an example:
Medscape Reference
What is it: Medscape is the leading online global destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide, offering the latest medical news and expert perspectives; essential point-of-care drug and disease information; and relevant professional education and CME. Medscape Reference provides comprehensive coverage of all major topics in adult medicine, paediatric medicine, and surgery.
How I use it: I mainly refer to the Diseases & Conditions articles in Medscape Reference. They also have articles on drugs, procedures, and so on. The content is very detailed, even more so than StatPearls. The information is highly organised, with separate tabs for Overview, Presentation, DDx, Workup, Treatment, Guidelines, and Medication. Under each of these are further subsections. For instance, under Overview, one would find Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology, Etiology, Epidemiology, Prognosis, and Patient Education. It’s very, very comprehensive.
Why it’s trustworthy: Their 7600+ contributors include top physicians and pharmacists from leading academic medical centres in the US and worldwide. Articles are regularly updated based on new and significant changes. They have a Literature Survey Process, which systematically reviews the major medical and pharmacy journals, FDA announcements, and important practice guidelines for practice-changing information.
The cost: All of Medscape’s content is available completely free of charge. This includes not just the reference articles, but also breaking medical news, CME activities, expert commentary, clinical tools and calculators, and more. It’s pretty incredible.
Take a look: View the Medscape article on Myocardial Infarction as an example:
MSD Manuals
What is it: The Manual was first published in 1899. In 2015, they had the ambitious goal of making the best current medical information accessible to 3 billion professionals and patients on every continent by 2020. The legacy of this great resource now continues as the Merck Manuals in the US and Canada and the MSD Manuals in the remainder of the world.
How I use it: I mostly access the Medical Topics articles, which, much like the Medscape and StatPearls articles, cover a broad range of health conditions. Depending on the article, the depth of information may be similar to StatPearls, or slightly less. Subheadings clearly set out the content of each section, which include, for instance: Pathophysiology, Symptoms and Signs, Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment. MSD Manuals is particularly useful for its more condensed information, in comparison to, say, Medscape. It also has a summary paragraph box at the top of each article, and Key Points at the end in point form, which are extremely useful for quick reference and understanding. (Note: Be sure that you’re using the “Professional Version”—they have a “Consumer Version” for patient education as well.)
Why it’s trustworthy: The Manuals are the product of a collaboration between hundreds of medical experts worldwide, an independent editorial board of peer reviewers, and their editorial staff of physicians and professional medical writers. Over 300 authors are all recognised experts in their field, with their names and credentials listed. Topics are updated on a regular basis. With their mission solely to be an educational resource, the Manuals have complete editorial independence.
The cost: Just like Medscape, the content on MSD Manuals is available for free, which is simply amazing.
Take a look: View the MSD Manuals article on Acute Myocardial Infarction (MI) as an example:
UpToDate
What is it: UpToDate is a subscription-based resource designed to provide physicians access to current clinical information. It addresses specific clinical issues in the form of topic reviews. According to UpToDate, it “is designed to get physicians the concise, practical answers they need when they need them most—at the point of care”.
How I use it: I mainly refer to certain relevant sections of their topic reviews. What’s unique about UpToDate is that they’re designed for healthcare practitioners (whereas AMBOSS has a slant towards medical students). As such, topic reviews have very specific clinical titles. While some may be on specific conditions, such as “Right ventricular myocardial infarction”, most would be topics like “Diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction” or “Overview of the acute management of ST-elevation myocardial infarction”. Each topic goes deep into detail, like Medscape. Similar to StatPearls, Medscape, and MSD Manuals articles, the information is organised into subsections, though the headings vary between different topic reviews, depending on the subject.
Why it’s trustworthy: UpToDate is known for its genesis in evidence-based medicine. More than 7,300 authors and editors apply their deep domain expertise to critically evaluate the literature and synthesise content. In their rigorous editorial process, each addition or update is reviewed by at least three expert contributors. Contributors’ information, publication dates, and references are all clearly indicated. Most clinicians view UpToDate as one of the most trusted resources.
The cost: Unfortunately, UpToDate is not free, requiring either an individual or enterprise subscription. They do not offer a free trial, however, there are discounts for medical students (the lowest being US$99 for a one-year subscription). It would be best to check if your institution subscribes to UpToDate (mine does!).
Take a look: View the UpToDate article on Right ventricular myocardial infarctionas an example:
Radiopaedia
What is it: Radiopaedia is the largest and most comprehensive collaborative radiology resource available. It is primarily compiled by radiologists and radiology trainees from across the world.
How I use it: Radiopaedia is best for radiology-related information and images. They do have an extensive range of articles on different conditions (since so many clinical diagnoses and procedures require imaging). I refer to these Radiology Reference Articles when the information I’m looking for is radiology-related, for instance, to look up the radiographic features of a certain condition. Particularly valuable is their library of Radiology Cases. You can usually search for their radiographs via Google Images, or there would be “Cases and figures” at the side of each article showing the relevant cases to that entry.
Why it’s trustworthy: The content on Radiopaedia is compiled by radiologists and other health professionals. While they are an open-edit resource, the accuracy and continued development of Radiopaedia.org is overseen by a dedicated group of editors, who also draw upon the knowledge of their expert advisers.
The cost: The reference materials on Radiopaedia are completely free. They do offer online radiology courses at affordable prices, and free for low- and middle-income countries. (However, this is unlikely to be relevant to you as a medical student.)
Take a look: View the Radiopaedia article on Myocardial infarction as an example:
Which Is the Best Reference Website?
There is no “best” website, only the one that suits your needs. If you’re not so willing to pay (like me) and do not have institutional access, then go for the free resources first—they would be more than sufficient. As a summary:
- Free: StatPearls, Medscape, MSD Manuals, Radiopaedia
- Not free (requires subscription): AMBOSS, UpToDate
All of the resources listed are credible and up-to-date sources, and the best way to use them would be to google your specific query, then see which ones show up among the top results.
Or, you could choose which one to use based on the level of detail you feel you need, for that particular condition or topic you’re searching up. Organised roughly by increasing level of detail in content, it would be: AMBOSS, Radiopaedia / MSD Manuals, StatPearls, Medscape, UpToDate.
When using these resources, I obviously do not read through the entire article, but jump to a specific section, or scan the pages and extract the information I need. As I explain in another article, this makes learning highly efficient and improves understanding.
Please feel free to share your favourite resources too, especially if they aren’t listed above! Simply leave a comment below. Don’t forget to check out the other articles in the Med School Resources series too. (Disclaimer: TLM has no affiliation to any of the above products or companies. All embedded links lead directly to the official site of the stated resource.)