Orthopaedia

OrthoPaedia is a peer-reviewed musculoskeletal medicine textbook that covers a wide range of topics, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment. It is written by a team of experts and is designed to be a comprehensive resource for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians.

Affordability matters a lot for a topic like musculoskeletal medicine, as any course offered is apt to be short. In my experience, students have been hesitant to buy an expensive textbook for a one or two-week course.

Reliability is a related issue. Without a textbook in hand, it’s likely that students will turn to the internet. The internet has lots of free information, of course, but not all of that information is correct. Besides, when it comes to taking care of patients, even “correct” information isn’t very helpful unless it has been validated.

Orthopaedia solves these problems. Orthopaedia is comprehensive, with more than 100 chapters covering musculoskeletal medicine from head to toe (or, technically speaking, the first cervical vertebra to the hallux). Orthopaedia is peer-reviewed, with each chapter vetted and endorsed by an independent subject matter expert. And Orthopaedia can be downloaded for the princely sum of $0.00.

That price tells you something else: there are no sales revenues to be collected and no royalties to be distributed. All of the 300-plus Orthopaedia contributors–writers, reviewers, and editors–were volunteers. Many of the Orthopaedia contributors are orthopaedic surgeons, but all of us came together around the belief that musculoskeletal medicine is important for all students, regardless of what their chosen field turns out to be.

Musculoskeletal diseases are common, so all healthcare providers must know the basics. By the same token, students who want to focus on these diseases need a good starting point: a book that keeps things as simple as possible but no simpler, as Einstein’s aphorism would have it. It is my hope that Orthopaedia will serve all students – and, ultimately, the people they care for.