Main description:

Statistical Evidence in Medical Trials is a lucid, well-written and entertaining text that addresses common pitfalls in evaluating medical research. Including extensive use of publications from the medical literature and a non-technical account of how to appraise the quality of evidence presented in these publications, this book is ideal for health care professionals, students in medical or nursing schools, researchers and students in statistics, and anyone needing
to assess the evidence published in medical journals.

Stephen D. Simon earned a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Iowa in 1982. He currently works as a research biostatistician at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, MO. He has authored or co-authored over 60 publications in a variety of medical and statistical journals, four of which have won awards. He has given a wide range of lectures and classes on statistics, evidence based medicine, research ethics, and quality control.

Contents:

Preface ; Overview ; 1. Apples or Oranges?: Selection of the control group. ; 2. Who was Left Out?: Exclusions, refusals, and drop-outs ; 3. Mountain or Molehill?: The clinical importance of the results ; 4. What do the Other Witnesses Say?: Corroborating Evidence ; 5. Do the Pieces Fit Together?: Systematic overviews and meta-analysis ; 6. What do All these Numbers Mean? ; 7. Where is the Evidence?: Searching for information