Understanding Medical Research: A Practitioner's Guide

This text is designed to help clinicians to develop a quick understanding of whether or not a study is valid for their field of inquiry, and to help them develop skills to carry out their own research where a qualified expert is not available to assist in study design or statistical analysis. The book has five main features: it is time-saving, helping readers to pick and choose appropriate studies to read and to discard the rest; it enhances clinical practice, helping readers to apply relevant results to their everyday practice; it is practical, helping the reader to develop the skills needed to carry out their own original studies; it is easy to use, concise and to the point, with a logical framework and many practical illustrations; and relevant, avoiding statistical theory and concentrating instead on the clinical utility of statistical tests.