Orthopaedic Pathology installs on a Windows 95 machine in the standard way. You choose Run and type drive:\install. I did this and waited for the normal prompt to select the drive and directory for installation. However, the next prompt informed me that the installation was complete. The installation program only adds a listing under the Programs section of the Start menu. The entire program runs off the CD‐ROM. Minimum recommended system requirements include:Windows 3.1 or higher, 640 × 480 × 256 color resolution, sound card; Macintosh System 7.1 or higher, 640 × 480 × 256 color resolution.
Orthopaedic Pathology contains a large array of photographs. Nowhere does any of the documentation state exactly how many this includes. The photos come from actual case materials of the author, Dr. Michael J. Klein, MD. (the CD includes a brief biography outlining Dr. Klein’s excellent credentials.) This product aims to present the variety of diseases to be encountered in orthopaedic pathology’, not just the rare cases. The radiographs, gross specimens, and sections generally are grouped together based on specific cases.
This product uses a standard search mechanism. The searcher may use standard Boolean operators as well as the proximity operator NEAR. AND is the default operator. Double quotation marks indicate phrases. The default for NEAR is within 8 words; but this can be changed to any number. The user may search in all topics, selected topics, or the current topic. In addition, the searcher may restrict the search to titles only or a list of previously found topics. Entering the phrase bone cyst retrieved 59 items (same as bone AND cyst). A phrase search on “bone cyst” found 43 items. As it should, a search on bone cyst NOT “bone cyst” retrieved 16 items. Parentheses may be used in complex searches.
The CD‐ROM contains all the documentation. The Help file is comprehensive as are sections on the author, publisher, and the company which created the CD‐ROM, Continuing Medical Education Associates, Inc. (CMEA).
All of the slides presented in this program are quite impressive in their clarity. Voice‐overs accompanying the slides are clear and easy to understand. The screen has a window section for presenting the slides and text and a vertical navigation bar along the side to assist the user. This bar includes the following buttons (from bottom to top): Quit, Help, Print Setup, Print, History (a list of slides visited during the current session), Go Back (steps back through the History file), Bookmark, Search, Index, Contents, Text, Teach Mode/Test Mode, a P arrow (previous slide in series), an N arrow (next slide in series), and an icon which looks like a die with six pips showing. This last icon is used to view slides in a random fashion. There is also a multimedia bar for starting, stopping, skipping, or replaying the voice overs. Overall, this screen presentation is quite good.
Having said that, I must admit this program confuses me. The Teaching Mode should more appropriately be named Review Mode. There is no way someone with no knowledge of this subject can understand what is being said since there are no visual indications from the program as to what is being referred to on any of the slides. The voice overs go along with what is presented when you click on the Text button. However, there are usually one to two additional sentences in the text portion. I assume this is the case due to lack of space on the CD‐ROM. It’s too bad there is no indication of this difference presented to the user.
I don’t understand Test Mode. The only differences between Teach Mode and Test Mode are that there are no labels on the pictures and the voice overs are omitted. There are no questions asked. I guess the user is supposed to mentally determine what is being presented and then click on the Text button to see if the conclusions are correct. There are no instructions or suggestions anywhere on what the purpose of Test Mode is or what the user should do. Will this program be useful in Higher Education? Maybe. It should be noted that the software producer, CMEA, provides materials aimed toward primary care professionals interested in earning CME credits.
Overall this looks like an excellent program. The program is easy to use and, with the exception of Test Mode, its purpose is clear. I would recommend it for review purposes.
