We would like to wholeheartedly thank the following people for their constant support, efforts, and faith in us, in helping to realize this handbook after 7 years.
Sincere and heartfelt thanks to the following:
• The publishing team from Oxford University Press, especially Mr Michael Hawkes (Senior Assistant Commissioning Editor for Medical Books) for his patience, negotiation, and expertise. You have been there every step of the way and your efforts are very much appreciated.
• All members of the editorial team and the consultant reviewers for giving up so much of their personal time to assist the contributors and ensuring quality control of the content. Thank you for working so well as a team and bringing such superb ideas to the table.
• Our plethora of devoted contributors and educators from every field of medicine and surgery. Thank you for submitting work of such high calibre, your insights, and expert advice.
• Our colleague publishing houses for offering permission to use their images.
• Our internal reviewers for taking the time out to review, critique, and appraise our entire book and offering your constructive criticisms to improve the content.
• Our families for their love, encouragement, and motivation. Thank you for compromising and sacrificing quality time with us, once again, so that we could write this handbook for every medical student everywhere. Needless to say, we will be striving to make up for the lost time.
• Our international audience for wanting a book like this and supporting the project from the very beginning. This handbook has been written for you. We all hope that it will serve as a useful companion throughout your exciting time at medical school that will ultimately lay the strong foundations for a lifetime of clinical practice.