Preface to the third edition

It is hard to believe that at least three years have passed since the second edition of the handbook. As with all medical specialties, Haematology has seen major inroads with new diagnostic tests, treatments and a plethora of guidelines. In fact, Haematology has the largest collection of guidelines covering all aspects of haematology care ( http://www.bcshguidelines.com) and was the first specialty to design guidelines in the 1980s.

The book underwent a major revision with the second edition, most notably the sections dealing with malignant disease. For the new edition these have been brought right up to date by Charles Singer. Coagulation has been entirely rewritten by Trevor Baglin and now truly reflects the current investigation and management of coagulation disorders. Following the retirement of Professor Sir John Lilleyman we needed to find a new author for the Paediatric Haematology component of the book. Thankfully, we were able to persuade Professor Inderjeet Dokal to take on this mantle and he has revised this section thoroughly.

In addition to these significant changes, we have gone through the entire book and attempted to ensure that obsolete tests have been removed and that the Handbook, in its entirety, reflects contemporary haematology practice.

As ever, we are very keen to hear about errors or omissions, for which we are entirely responsible! We would also very much like readers to contact us if there are topics or subject areas which they would like to see included in the fourth edition (email a.provan@virgin.net). We also need more trainee input so if there are any volunteer proof-readers or accuracy checkers among the haematology trainee community we would very much like to hear from you.

DP

CRJS

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ISD

2008