My New Favorite Resource: Huppert’s Notes

This has become my most used resource during my acting internship and I’m honestly so excited to share more about it because I love it so much! Huppert’s notes started as a third year medical student’s notes during her training at Harvard medical school and then evolved to include her notes during her Internal Medicine residency at UCSF. The published version of her notes includes contributors from UCSF.

As a third and fourth year medical student, I found it hard to find a resource that included both the relevant pathophysiology we learned during our first two years, AND the clinical knowledge we picked up throughout clerkships. During my acting internship, I realized the importance of research and evidence-based medicine, but did not know any of the trials that attendings and fellows mentioned on rounds.

Huppert’s notes is one of the most comprehensive, if not the most comprehensive resource that I’ve used. It includes everything I have to know as an acting intern and future intern. (For the record, this is not a paid/sponsored post.) It not only includes pathophysiology and clinical knowledge, but management and key trials as well.

Organization

Amboss is an online resource that I use often because of how it’s organized (epidemiology, pathophys, clinical features, diagnostics, treatment, differentials). It’s similar to UpToDate, but much more condensed.

But Huppert’s notes is organized like this:

• Anatomy and Physiology
  • Example: We all know that Endo is all about hormones and understanding the physiology of it is actually important. The Endo chapter includes the pathways of the hormone cascades.
• Diagnostics
  • Example: There is a table in the GI chapter that lists all the diagnostic tests used in GI (EGD, colonoscopy, flex sig, capsule etc.), tells you what it is used to diagnose, what it treats, and the procedure details, including how long patients need to be NPO for, etc.
• Approaches and Chief Complaints
  • Example: I’m going to use the GI section again just because GI covers so much. Take abdominal pain or jaundice. It goes over the steps to working it up. It’s a great for looking at differentials.
• Diseases and Pathophysiology
  • Example: Tumor lysis syndrome – pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnostics, prophylaxis/treatment.
• Key medications and Interventions
  • Example: In Neuro chapter, there is a table with common medications used (tPA, aspirin, clopidogrel, phenytoin, carbidopa-levodopa, etc) as well as the mechanism of action, uses, and adverse reactions.
• Key Clinical Trials and Publications
  • Example: The cardiology section includes important trials and summarizes the results in a small paragraph.
  • You will also see trials bolded in green in the treatment section of Diseases & Pathophysiology, which is great because you will look genius if you can cite the trial that supports your management. But not all the trials cited throughout the book are included in this section.
• Space for your personal notes
  • I use this space a lot during “chalk talks”, which is when a resident/fellow/attending goes over a topic in the team room when there is “down time”.

Here is an overview of the systems that are covered:

• Cardiology
• Pulmonology
• Critical Care Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Endocrinology
• Nephrology
• Hematology and Oncology
• Infectious Diseases
• Rheumatology
• General Medicine
  • Medicine in the outpatient setting along with health maintenance pearls
• Dermatology
• Neurology
• Psychiatry

The editors did a superb job in making it visually pleasing and printing all the diagrams and tables. The headings are color coded, sections are underlined, tables are bright and outlined wonderfully, and overall it’s just printed in such a high quality.

Size

It’s big enough for me to carry on rounds, but small enough to where I can quickly find what I’m looking for and read through it. It’s about 400 pages long, 2 inches thick. For how comprehensive it is, Huppert’s notes is extremely easy to carry around. I also use it like a clipboard when I need to write something down on rounds but don’t have a table or something nearby.

General Comments

• I’m obsessed with Huppert’s notes. I’ve been carrying it on rounds, opening it up whenever I’m writing my assessment and plan, referring to it and taking my own notes whenever an attending gives a talk on a topic.
• My favorite aspects of Huppert’s notes are the key trials/publications, treatment section, and diagrams and tables. I’m a visual person and all of this works in my favor.
• It’s perfect for clerkships, but especially important on your acting internship and as an intern because you are expected to know the pathophysiology, diagnostics, treatment, and key interventions and trials.
• I love that it includes a specific section for Critical Care and General Medicine.

AMAZON LINK

That’s all I have to say about it! I’ll update this post as I continue to use it. Let me know if you have any questions!

Kelly

Internal medicine resident physician at UCLA, primary care track. VCU School of Medicine c/o 2022. SoCal born and raised.

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