The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea: A Revised and Updated Directory for the... by James N. Parker M.D. and Philip M. Parker Ph.D.

This is a "must have" reference book for patients, parents, caregivers, and libraries with medical collections. This sourcebook is organized into three parts. Part I explores basic techniques to researching acne rosacea (e.g. finding guidelines on diagnosis, treatments, and prognosis), followed by a number of topics, including information on how to get in touch with organizations, associations, or other patient networks dedicated to acne rosacea. It also gives you sources of information that can help you find a doctor in your local area specializing in treating acne rosacea. Collectively, the material presented in Part I is a complete primer on basic research topics for patients with acne rosacea. Part II moves on to advanced research dedicated to acne rosacea. Part II is intended for those willing to invest many hours of hard work and study. It is here that we direct you to the latest scientific and applied research on acne rosacea. When possible, contact names, links via the Internet, and summaries are provided. In general, every attempt is made to recommend "free-to-use" options. Part III provides appendices of useful background reading for all patients with acne rosacea or related disorders. The appendices are dedicated to more pragmatic issues faced by many patients with acne rosacea. Accessing materials via medical libraries may be the only option for some readers, so a guide is provided for finding local medical libraries which are open to the public. Part III, therefore, focuses on advice that goes beyond the biological and scientific issues facing patients with acne rosacea.

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
This book got off on the wrong foot for me on the front cover. Calling the disease Acne Rosacea is a step backwards for all. No one is really calling it acne rosacea anymore. It is different enough from acne that the moniker is just confusing. Further, treating it like acne may just be the worst thing you can do. The book is more of a template for `generic health researching' than anything specific to rosacea. The information is of such a generic level that a sourcebook on the next medical topic is just a search and replace away. I thought that I might get to see some new information, but alas I was disappointed. On Page 4 we read "All too often, patients diagnosed with acne rosacea will log on the the Internet, type words into a search engine, and receive several Web site listings which are mostly irrelevant or redundant" Sadly this is the opposite of what you find. The National Rosacea Society comes up as a PageRank of 1 on Google. As much as we chastise the NRS, they do provide a very good starting point. If people were to start their search at the #1 rosacea web site then they will be on the right track. I'm not sure the same can be said for this book. Later they promise "a chapter dedicated to helping you find your peer groups". They end up only mentioning a prescription drug page at rosacea-control.com, CureZone and MedHelp (of which CureZone didn't mention rosacea at all, and MedHelp timed out). Again they never mention the NRS or the Rosacea Support Group. I could keep going - the section on books doesn't mention the best text we have, the pages of links doesn't mention the Open Directory Project Categories ... The Guidelines chapter is too short to contain anything useful. They talk about "another type of rosacea called vascular rosacea" this statement left me wondering if they had any idea what they were saying. Surely just paraphrasing the standard classification for rosacea would have been ideal introduction, especially when you are unsure of the topic you are addressing. The whole aim of the series of books seems to be to give you information that you can't find on the well known `rosacea internet'. I have to say from my reading of this book there are scant new resources worth noting. In the end the authors would have done better to embrace what they knocked in the first few pages. A trip to google.com, drop the `acne' bit at from `acne rosacea' and surf the first few sites you find. After that you will be in front of this book, and have something else to do with your $USD 25.