• Improve your diagnostic skills with tips on taking an orthopaedic history, conducting an orthopaedic physical exam, and describing an X-ray.
• Enhance your ability to communicate orthopaedic findings to colleagues.
• Master common technical procedures useful in primary care orthopaedics.
• Understand the most common types of orthopaedic trauma and conditions you’ll encounter in children, adults, and the elderly.

What do you really need to learn about orthopaedics? What are the most common orthopaedic conditions seen by primary care physicians? Shortcut to Orthopaedics answers these questions for medical students and non-orthopaedic physicians, minus the information overload found in most textbooks. Photos and X-ray images highlight key principles throughout this practical text.

Robert Perlau, MD, FRCSC, is an assistant clinical professor of surgery at the University of Alberta and the chief of surgery for the Red Deer Regional Hospital and Central Alberta Zone. The director of orthopaedic teaching for the University of Alberta rural residency program since its inception, Dr. Perlau has taught students and family medicine residents in a community hospital setting for more than 20 years.

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Canadian medical students and primary care physicians can only benefit from this tour de force musculoskeletal primer. A product of Dr. Perlau’s dogged determination and passion for teaching, Shortcut to Orthopaedics will certainly provide a perspective of Orthopaedics that primary care physicians so much desire and need.

Dr. Geoffrey Johnston, Professor of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedics, University of Saskatchewan; Past President, Canadian Orthopaedic Association

Dr. Perlau has taken years of teaching family medicine residents and distilled his practical wisdom into this manual of primary care orthopaedics. It is a treasure trove of nuts and bolts for what generalist primary care physicians need to know to treat urgent orthopaedic conditions, trauma and more elective conditions. It is one of those manuals that residents might love in their side pocket or that might become dog-eared from use on the emergency room bookshelf. I recommend it highly to all primary care docs.

Dr. Fred Janke, Director of Rural and Regional Health, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta