Physik's Lists - Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I've installed your .pdb file onto my Palm organiser, but there's no icon for it and so I can't view the data.
A. You need to install the freeware database program called "List" to view my data. You can get the latest version here or even better from Roo's website where you'll find other useful information about it and some related utilities.
Q. I've installed "List" onto my Palm organiser, but the program menus and buttons are unintelligible.
A. If you have installed more than one "List" .prc file, then you are probably now viewing a foreign lanaguage version of the program (though my data should still show up in English). You should uninstall "List" completely and then install just one version (all you need for the English version is the list.prc file).
Q. Why don't you simply distribute "list.prc" and your .pdb file together as a zipped file (to avoid the above problems) ?
A. I would like to, but the author of "List" would prefer people to view his website and download the whole program in order to prevent problems that people will then end up emailing him about.
Q. What do the numbers in brackets mean ?
A. The numbers refer to how many items or lines of text are in each list and are grouped together in a way that hopefully makes some sense (to me at least !) I often try to arrange list items in pairs for ease of memorising - I tell our medical students that if they have a list of things to remember then if they can pair up items they will half the number to remember. Otherwise groupings should reflect some commonality between items. I also try to arrange the items (and groups) in order of importance or frequency of occurrence (most common items first).
Physik's Lists was developed to help me in my daily clinical work and in my revision for exams. By having the numbers in the sub-topic heading I can run down the lists in any given category and using the numbers as a cue I try to recite the items that will be in each list. Please don't believe that I think list-learning is the best way to learn medicine - in fact I hate it so much I had to create Physik's Lists to make myself do it !
Q. What do all these abbreviations mean ?
A. Unfortunately, abbreviations are inevitable in a medical program running on a Palm organiser. In the "Miscellaneous" category you will some files entitled "Abbreviations" which should explain what each abbreviation means. If any are missing please let me know or else edit the "Abbreviations" files yourself. Some abbreviations are likely to reflect the fact that I currently work in the UK.
Q. Can I change your English spellings to the American versions ?
A. If you must ! Seriously though, everything is editable and if you want to change such spellings en masse then I suggest you use the "Find" function and look up terms such as "haem" and "tumour" etc.
Q. What about these spelling mistakes ?
A. If so then I'd be glad to know about them ! However, some are actually deliberate abbreviations to make text fit into the space available eg. the "Gastroenterolgy" category.
email me if you have any further questions