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The art of diagnosis in medicine has become increasingly complex over the last 20 years with a proliferation of laboratory and radiological tests. Newly qualified doctors and medical students must learn to use this huge array of tests wisely in reaching a diagnosis - a skill often not covered in standard medical textbooks.

Winthrop Professor Paul Jenkins and Associate Professor Paula Johnson, both of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, have addressed this issue in their new textbook for medical students and junior doctors "Making sense of acute medicine: a guide to diagnosis." (Hodder Education 2010)

Professor Paul Jenkins is Professor of Acute Medicine at Joondalup Health Campus. He moved to WA in 2007 from the UK where he was a consultant in acute medicine in Norwich and a founder member and past president of the Society for Acute Medicine UK. He was also Associate Dean at Addenbrookes Hospital and the clinical school of medicine of Cambridge University for 10 years.

Associate Professor Paula Johnson is a consultant general and respiratory physician at Fremantle Hospital. She also moved to WA in 2007 from London where she was a consultant in general and respiratory medicine for seven years, and a lead tutor for graduate entry medical students studying at St George's Hospital Medical School. She is the Year 5 Medicine coordinator on the MBBS course and has a particular interest in the difficulties students face in learning to think logically about the diagnostic process in medicine.

The book covers all the common acute presentations to physicians working in hospital emergency departments and medical assessment units. It has extensive information on focused medical history taking, physical examination and prudent usage of diagnostic tests. Both authors have many years of experience on the "acute medical take" and this has guided the practical approach to diagnosis advocated in their book.

The book was launched at the World Conference of Internal Medicine in Melbourne this month and the full publication date is scheduled for next month.