Evidence-Based Diagnosis

by Thomas B. Newman , Michael A. Kohn

• ISBN13: 9780521714020
• ISBN10: 0521714028
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Evidence-Based Diagnosis is a textbook about diagnostic, screening, and prognostic tests in clinical medicine. The authors' approach is based on many years of experience teaching physicians in a clinical research training program. Although requiring only a minimum of mathematics knowledge, the quantitative discussions in this book are deeper and more rigorous than in most introductory texts. The book includes numerous worked examples and 60 problems (with answers) based on real clinical situations and journal articles. The book will be helpful and accessible to anyone looking to select, develop, or market medical tests. Topics covered include: -The diagnostic process -Test reliability and accuracy -Testing and treatment thresholds -Critical appraisal of studies of diagnostic, screening and prognostic tests -Test independence and methods of combining tests -Quantifying treatment benefits using randomized trials and observational studies -Bayesian interpretation of P values and confidence intervals -Challenges for evidence-based diagnosis -Likelihood ratios -ROC curves

Author Biography

Thomas B. Newman is Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. He previously served as Associate Director of the UCSF/Stanford Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF. He is a co-author of Designing Clinical Research and a practicing pediatrician. Michael A. Kohn is Associate Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he teaches clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. He is also an emergency physician with more than 20 years of clinical experience, currently practicing at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, California.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments & Dedication	p. ix
Abbreviations/Acronyms	p. xi
Introduction: understanding diagnosis and diagnostic testing	p. 1
Reliability and measurement error	p. 10
Dichotomous tests	p. 39
Multilevel and continuous tests	p. 68
Critical appraisal of studies of diagnostic tests	p. 94
Screening tests	p. 116
Prognostic tests and studies	p. 138
Multiple tests and multivariable decision rules	p. 156
Quantifying treatment effects using randomized trials	p. 186
Alternatives to randomized trials for estimating treatment effects	p. 206
Understanding P-values and confidence intervals	p. 220
Challenges for evidence-based diagnosis	p. 239
Answers to problems	p. 255
Index	p. 287
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