As suggested by the title, The Big Picture: Gross Anatomy is a zoomed-out, no-frills overview of the subject of gross anatomy. Indeed, the preface states that “the purpose of this textbook is to provide students with the necessary landmarks to accomplish their task ― to understand the big picture of human anatomy in the context of health care, bypassing the minutia.” This is not to say that The Big Picture: Gross Anatomy is by any means perfunctory. Organized into seven sections by body system and further subdivided into 38 short (roughly 10 pages) chapters, the book covers surface anatomy, skeletal structure, blood supply, innervation, and musculature for the entire body. Each page of text faces a corresponding page of full-color illustrations, such that nearly every topic in the book has an accompanying figure. The text is logically ordered with highlighted keywords and user-friendly tables at the end of each chapter, and the illustrations are consistently clear throughout. Each section has several brief clinical correlations and concludes with roughly 20 multiple-choice questions, with a “final exam” at the end of the book. The consistent organization of each section and chapter and the index make navigating quite manageable, and the formatting is accessible.
Students using this book will find it easy to stay focused on large concepts and will benefit greatly from the abundance of illustrations. The clinical correlations are sufficient to highlight relevant anatomy but will leave clinically oriented readers wanting more. This is clearly not an atlas, as it provides no information on dissection and no pictures of actual structures. The amount and depth of information supplied is ideal for most intro anatomy courses, but is most likely not sufficient as a reference for more advanced users. The text thus fills a niche between the short outline-style board review books and large anatomy textbooks. This book is written to be a standalone, entry-level textbook for first- and second-year medical school students, and to that end it performs admirably.