Pediatric Emergency Medicine Board Review Course

The 3 versions follow the same format: clinical vignettes, questions with 5 answer options, and answer explanations. Each chapter of the PEMQBook was written by practicing board-certified PEM attending physicians. 

The PEMQBook 2017 edition contains mostly new questions. Some chapters are entirely new (Ultrasound, etc.), and some were completely re-written. All of the previous questions/answers were revised and improved. Some "classic" type of questions couldn't be substantially improved, so the instructions for the authors allowed for fewer modifications on these. There are many new authors, all of whom were required to create original material, all of which was edited by the editors.

All answer explanations contain references. References are largely for further reading to direct the reader to easily accessible sources for further information. In some cases, references were also added to support the answer explanation. This was left to the authors' discretion.

The 2017 version is longer with 439 text pages (vs 335 text pages in P2013 and 222 in the P2009 book).

While PEMQBook 2009 and 2013 are still valid and useful, it is really a different question and answer set. PEMQBook 2017 contains new and more questions, has improved answer explanations, and has been more recently validated.

Additionally, the quality of the questions is improved over the 3 editions. P2017 has many more 2-step questions, which are more challenging.

While we believe that our work represents an endeavor of the highest quality, we recognize that we are not perfect, and we can always improve the project. We appreciate the constructive comments that were submitted to P2009 and P2013. As a result, some modifications have been made to P2009 and P2013, and are posted on the respective Updates pages.

Textbooks don’t usually offer a feedback mechanism that actually changes a book because once the textbook has been released, and therefore printed, no changes can be made. In fact, books are often published in large quantities in other countries. Furthermore, we doubt that others would want to deal with a second and third round of editing (it is a substantial amount of work). Our print-on-demand format allows for further changes.

We have accepted feedback for PEMQBook 2017 through May 1, 2017. The book has been finalized and no further updates will be made. All changes will be posted on the Updates 2017 page for those who had already purchased the book. If relevant, any sigificant future errata will be posted here as well.

We are pleased to announce electronic versions of P2013 and P2017. Both are available now and are marketed as Pack 1 for P2013 and Pack 2 for P2017, which can be bought separately or together.  We have updated and validated Pack 1 (P2013) on Challenger and in print. No further revisions will be made to the print book.

Each product is a web-based reference, self-assessment, and CME credit course accessible 24/7 via any Internet-enabled device (Mac and PC computers, tablets, and smartphone devices).  The products will enable customers to access either  PEMQBook (either 2013 or 2017) electronically online and further provide a wide variety of personal review and convenience features such as practice, review, and assessment modes with instant on-screen feedback, media libraries, and content search features.  In addition, comprehensive and section-based exam simulations with performance reports that help guide learning, promoting optimum uptake of information in the shortest amount of time, will be available. 

Over 50 AMA Category 1 and AAP CME credits are offered via each online course (Pack 1 and 2). Options are available for local installation on Mac/PC computers when the Internet is unavailable.

For groups and training programs too - Challenger offers an academic version of the PEMQBook course for residency and physician assistant training institutions including performance tracking and other group training management tools that improve group compliance, pass-rates, and program staff efficiency.  For more information about Challenger’s group education and quality improvement platform, see www.challengercme.com/groups.

We originally desired the highest quality book that we could create. Therefore, we embedded the pictures into the question sections, rather than design the book with a separate picture section for color images, which is much cheaper to produce. Because of this, the color version of the book requires us to pay for color for each page, even if it is a text page. Therefore, the cost of color printing is greater than that of black and white.

We opted to offer a black and white version for two specific reasons: 1) To offer a lower cost alternative; and 2) For those using the book in groups (e.g., fellowship training). If you are using the book in a group, having 1 color book and the rest black and white would save money collectively, while still having access to color pictures.

The black and white version is also printed on higher quality paper, and the print process is better than photocopying. We hope that by offering a Black and White version, the cost will not be prohibitive for anyone.

The book was created for color use, and you will optimize the features of the book with this version. 

Due to the size of P2013 and P2017, the books' size warranted a better binding, and therefore all color versions are available only as a hardback cover.

Since the B&W version is intended to be used in groups, with the goal as a lower priced option, the soft cover was kept.

We added references to PEMQBook 2017. Most references cite the most recent editions of major textbooks or UpToDate.com. The most common sources were:

Fleisher and Ludwig's 5-Minute Pediatric Emergency Medicine Consult, 2012.

Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine, 2015.

Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 2015.

Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (Fleisher and Ludwig, eds.), 2016.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine (Baren, et. al, eds.), 2008.

In addition, we hope that through the collective experience of the authors and editors, and diligent review of the material, our work will represent “reasonable common standard practice.” There will inevitably be institutional variation, but we hope we have minimized this, either with the question, or clarified this in the explanations.

Since publishing our first question and answer book in 2000 (Review for Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 4th ed, published by LWW), we were not aware of another board preparation/question review book for our subspecialty. PREP-EM had released a question and answer online program, but it appears to have a different structure (fewer questions, longer answer explanations versus ours with lots of questions with shorter answer explanations). We felt that there was a definite need. PEMQBook 2009 and 2013 each sold over 1500 copies, which is still below the goal of a publishing company, but obviously a book that is needed for our subspecialty.

Now with PEMQBook 2017, we have added 1119 new questions/answer sets, collectively providing almost 3000 questions between the 3 books.

Additional annual costs include website fees, administrative costs, and insurance, etc.

Since we started with no budget in 2008, we decided to minimize the costs by using word-of-mouth, the PEM Listserve, the program directors’ listserve, and meetings to announce the book.  Having a marketing and advertising budget would have added expenses to the cost of the book, and therefore, increased the cost and price of the book.

With the release of the electronic applications from Challenger Corporation, advertising may occur through their company. These costs are not passed onto us.

Being the copy and layout editor took a huge amount of time. We spent as much time with the editing and layout as we did trying to improve the quality of the questions. However, working with larger publishing companies has its own drawbacks. Editorial assistance is limited by the knowledge base of a non-physician editor. For PEMQBook 2017, we had the assistance of layout and copy assistants, but most of the work was done by the authors and editors, since this ensured the highest qualtiy work.