Curt D. Furberg

Bengt D. Furberg

This book aims to make the readers better informed and more critical consumers of clinical research. It will help the reader recognize the strengths and the weaknesses of scientific publications. In doing so, the reader will be able to distinguish patient-important and methodologically sound studies from those having limitations in design, conduct and interpretation. The text is basic and has no statistical formulas. Key take-home messages are listed at the end of each chapter. Cartoons make the text easier to read and generate a few laughs, and they underscore specific points, sometimes in a provocative way.

All that glitters is not gold

Evaluating Clinical Research

Lawrence M. Friedman

David L. DeMets

From the authors of "Fundamentals of Clinical Trials" which has sold over 15,000 copies world wide since its publication in 1998. No competition yet as the text does not focus on how to do clinical trials but on very specific situations that can be encountered during the process.

A Case Studies Approach

Data Monitoring in Clinical Trials

The clinical trial is “the most definitive tool for evaluation of the applicability of clinical research.” It represents “a key research activity with the potential to improve the quality of health care and control costs through careful comparison of alternative treatments” [1]. It has been called on many occasions, “the gold st- dard” against which all other clinical research is measured. Although many clinical trials are of high quality, a careful reader of the medical literature will notice that a large number have deficiencies in design, conduct, analysis, presentation, and/or interpretation of results. Improvements have occurred over the past few decades, but too many trials are still conducted without adequate attention to its fundamental principles. Certainly, numerous studies could have been upgraded if the authors had had a better understanding of the fundamentals. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, a large number of other texts on clinical trials have appeared, most of which are indicated here [2–21]. Several of them, however, discuss only specific issues involved in clinical trials. Additionally, many are no longer current. The purpose of this fourth edition is to update areas in which major progress has been made since the publication of the third edition. We have revised most chapters considerably and added one on ethical issues.

Curt D. Furberg

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