Essential Evidence-based Medicine with CD-ROM

by Dan Mayer

• ISBN13: 9780521712415
• ISBN10: 0521712416
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback w/CD
• Copyright: 2009-12-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Essential Evidence-Based Medicine teaches the principles of research study methodology and design so that the reader can become better at critically analysing scientific and clinical studies. It describes the basic elements needed to understand biostatistics and epidemiology as applied to health care studies, and how to become a more discriminating reader of the medical literature by adopting the skills of critical appraisal. This new edition is extensively edited and updated, and includes two entirely new chapters on critical appraisal of qualitative research and communicating risks and evidence to patients. The text is geared towards the new learner, and assumes little clinical experience, starting with the basic principles of critical appraisal. A CD-ROM accompanies the book to enable students to test their learning through a series of questions, with answers provided. This is an ideal introductory text for medical students, health sciences students and a wide range of other healthcare professionals.

Author Biography

Dan Mayer is Professor of Emergency Medicine, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
A brief history of medicine and statistics	p. l
What is evidence-based medicine?	p. 9
Causation	p. 19
The medical literature: an overview	p. 24
Sarching the medical literature	p. 33
Study design and strength of evidence	p. 56
Instruments and measurements: precision and validity	p. 67
Sources of bias	p. 80
Review of basic statistics	p. 93
Hypothesis testing	p. 109
Type I errors and number needed to treat	p. 120
Negative studies and Type II errors	p. 130
Risk assessment	p. 141
Adjustment and multivariate analysis	p. 156
Randomized clinical trials	p. 164
Scientific integrity and the responsible conduct of research	p. 179
Applicability and strength of evidence	p. 187
Communicating evidence to patients	p. 199
Critical appraisal of qualitative research studies	p. 208
An overview of decision making in medicine	p. 215
Sources of error in the clinical encounter	p. 233
The use of diagnostic tests	p. 244
Utility and characteristics of diagnostic tests: likelihood ratios, sensitivity, and specificity	p. 249
Bayes' theorem, predictive values, post-test probabilities, and interval likelihood ratios	p. 261
Comparing tests and using ROC curves	p. 276
Incremental gain and the threshold approach to diagnostic testing	p. 282
Sources of bias and critical appraisal of studies of diagnostic tests	p. 295
Screening tests	p. 310
Practice guidelines and clinical prediction rules	p. 320
Decision analysis and quantifying patient values	p. 333
Cost-effectiveness analysis	p. 350
Survival analysis and studies of prognosis	p. 359
Meta-analysis and systematic reviews	p. 367
Levels of evidence and grades of recommendations	p. 378
Overview of critical appraisal	p. 384
Commonly used statistical tests	p. 387
Formulas	p. 389
Proof of Bayes' theorem	p. 392
Using balance sheets to calculate thresholds	p. 394
Glossary	p. 396
Bibliography	p. 411
Index	p. 425
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