Preface

We are pleased to present this second edition of Ganong’s Medical Physiology Examination & Board Review. As with the first edition, our primary goal has been to streamline the text of the “parent” volume, Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology for ease of review, retaining only the most high-yield concepts and illustrations. We have updated the content where needed, aligned the self-study questions with the order in which concepts are presented in the text, and expanded the explanations of why the answer to these questions is in fact the best one and why the distractors are wrong, further enhancing conceptual understanding of physiology rather than simply reinforcing rote memorization. We continue to believe that this companion volume represents a robust resource for USMLE preparation and have been gratified by the reception that the first edition received.

We are excited to have added a wholly new feature to this volume that we anticipate will be a significant aid to learning. Each primary chapter is now accompanied by a full-color “visual abstract” that we intend to be a “one stop shop” that summarizes the chapter’s key content in a readily digestible way. These visual abstracts can be used alone as an aide memoire for final revision, as an introduction to the chapter overall, and as a prompt for key areas where understanding is critical. The abstracts were conceptually outlined by the authors, but their consistent stylistic elements, graphical beauty, and utility owes a great deal to the efforts of Jason McAlexander, MFA, of MPS North America LLC. He did an amazing job of converting our rough sketches to artistically pleasing, while physiologically accurate, finished products.

This new volume also now aligns the authorship team with that of the parent volume. Professor Heddwen Brooks, now at Tulane University School of Medicine, returns to cover renal physiology as well as several topics in the endocrine physiology section. And following his addition to the team for Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology for the 26th edition, Professor Jason Yuan, of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, brings his expertise in cell physiology and respiratory physiology to this title also, as well as contributing to the cardiovascular section. We anticipate that our team, which also continues to include Professors Sue Barman (Michigan State University College of Human Medicine) and Kim Barrett (now at the University of California Davis School of Medicine) will now remain affiliated with both the parent volume and this text for the foreseeable future.

We hope that many new medical students will benefit from Ganong’s Medical Physiology Examination & Board Review—either in conjunction with Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology, or as a standalone resource. We also hope that the late Professor Ganong would have been pleased with the continuing evolution of the text that became his life’s work.