Oakstone Publishing Reviews

Have been using their Practical Reviews product for some time now. It's helpful for getting a quick overview of what's happening in recent medical literature. Each article comes with commentary from one of their reviewers, which sometimes offers valuable insight but often feels irrelevant. Still, it serves as a good foundation and you do earn your continuing education credits. Unfortunately, the mobile app is pretty rough - it crashes frequently and the interface feels clunky and poorly designed. One thing to watch out for is that they constantly advertise the product at half price, which makes you wonder what the real value is. They also push year-end deals, gift cards, and similar promotions, though a lot of these restrictions mean they can't actually be used on what you want. Another heads up: they start asking you to renew several months before your subscription actually expires, so keep track of your purchase date to avoid overpaying. I'd give it more stars if they actually fixed things, but even though they acknowledge customer feedback, nothing ever seems to change. I'm just going to let my subscription expire when it runs out.

Signed up for the Oakstone NRCME PLUS review course designed to help prepare for the 10-year recertification exam taken by National Registry Certified Medical Examiners administering DOT physicals for commercial drivers. The course includes 28 modules each with a quiz, plus a final post test and optional quizzes throughout. While the review date shows January 23, 2013, suggesting current content, the material is actually quite outdated and contains numerous inaccuracies. Most of the course still references 2012 guidelines that have significantly changed over the past 11 years. This is problematic because the outdated information can lead test takers to arrive at wrong conclusions and fail the recertification exam. One major error involves abdominal aortic aneurysm standards - the course incorrectly states that an AAA is disqualifying if it increases in size greater than 1 cm in 6 months, when the actual current standard requires disqualification if it increases greater than 0.5 cm in 6 months. Additionally, the course lists Chantix as a disqualifying medication for drivers, but the Medical Review Board has since determined that Chantix is now acceptable. Another issue involves their discussion of vision exemptions without proper context. These kinds of errors throughout the course are concerning for anyone relying on it to prepare for the actual certification exam.