A large part of training as a fellow is gaining a fund of knowledge as well as knowing the references to rely on to increase your fund of knowledge. Many obscure questions will come your way and knowing how to quickly access specialized references will help you succeed clinically.
- The Red Book: The Red Book is a good starting point for looking things up quickly. If you are a member of the AAP, you will receive access to the online version as well as the mobile versions as a member benefit. If you want the hard copy, you can order it through the AAP website.
- Antibiotic Guides (all options offer similar information, look through and decide which is best for your workflow):
- Sanford Guide (app available)
- Nelson’s Pediatric Antimicrobial Therapy (Paperback & eBook)
- Nelson’s Neonatal Antimicrobial Therapy
- NeoFax & Lexicomp may be available through your institution
Textbooks: Many people like to own a copy of the major texts, and many provide online access depending on the publisher so that you can review topics online. Find out what you have access to and consider purchasing the others.
- Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Feigin and Cherry’s Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Pediatric Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases
- Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics
- Plotkin’s Vaccines
- Remington & Klein’s Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant
- Tropical Infectious Diseases
- Hurwitz Clinical Pediatric Dermatology
- Handbook of Pediatric Infection Prevention and Control
- Practical Implementation of an Antibiotic Stewardship Program
These references are available online:
- Antimicrobe.org: A comprehensive database of infectious diseases and antimicrobial agents, frequently updated.
- The Pink Book: Comprehensive information on vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases. You can order a copy, or download from cdc.gov.
- The Yellow Book: Excellent reference for travel medicine, published every two years by the CDC.
- The Purple Book: The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for Clinicians is your one-stop shop for all things vaccine, from understanding basic vaccine immunology to overcoming vaccine hesitancy. Details about infrastructure, logistics, delivery, and special circumstances are laid out, and information about every licensed vaccine (and its corresponding preventable disease) are given. The book is available as a free app for iOS devices (Vaccine Handbook App Download).
This list is just a start – if there is a specific area of infectious diseases you love, there is sure to be a reference book that can help you master it!
Online Resources:
Institution Specific Resources: Many institutions have internal documents that will make your clinical job easier – find out early about clinical pathways, order sets, easily available resources, journal article repositories, your university library, and any additional access to books that are a shared resource. If you find your institution is lacking in shared resources, start accumulating any electronic resources that can easily be passed fellow to fellow.
Journals: These journals are frequently read by most Infectious Diseases fellows and attendings, some of which come free with society memberships.
- Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (JPIDS) (included with PIDS membership)
- Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) (included with IDSA membership)
- Journal of infectious Diseases (JID) (included with IDSA membership)
- Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID) (included with IDSA membership)
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal (PIDJ)
- Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) (open access publication from CDC)
Journals also accompany your membership to the AAP, including Pediatrics.
Of course, depending on your interests and your library’s access, many individuals choose additional journals to subscribe to – check in with mentors early on regarding what they have found most useful. Also consider establishing your own RSS feed that will pull topics of interest from numerous journals and deliver them to your mailbox through your institution’s library. Alternatively, you can flag topics you are interested in through Pubmed’s “saved searches” feature which can automatically send you search results for topics on a recurring basis.
Podcasts and listservs: There are many modern ways to find out about ID including podcasts, list-serves, and even X (Twitter)!
- Emerging Infectious Diseases podcast
- Puscast: weekly podcast that summarizes the ID literature
- Breakpoints: monthly podcast by SIDP that focuses on current literature, ID meetings updates, and lead antimicrobial stewardship efforts
- Let’s Talk ID: weekly podcast by IDSA featuring discussion with experts on a range of ID related topics
- Febrile: weekly to bi-weekly podcast using consult questions to dive into ID clinical reasoning, diagnostics, and antimicrobial management in both adult and pediatric ID
- This Week in Parasitism (TWiP): weekly podcast by the American Society for Microbiology about eukaryotic parasites – the tiny creatures that live in and on us (also TWiM microbiology & TWiV virology)
- CIDRAP list-serv: provides information on new and emerging pathogens
- IDSA listerv: provides a summary of hot topics in Infectious Diseases
- Emerging Infections Network (EIN) by IDSA: provides a bridge between infectious diseases physicians and public health authorities with the overarching goal of improving surveillance for emerging infectious diseases
- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly: publication from CDC on public health topics
- COCA webinars: webinars from CDC on public health topics
- Register for health alert networks (HAN) from your state and local health departments to keep up to date on outbreaks
