Studying a Study and Testing a Test: How to Read the Medical Evidence 5e

In today's rapidly changing world of clinical practice, old assumptions quickly fall under the weight of new evidence. But to make effective clinical decisions, you must face a deluge of data published in the health research literature.

With this best-selling text as your guide, you'll discover a concise, stepwise program that will help you evaluate clinical studies, identify flaws in study design, interpret statistics, and apply evidence from clinical research to your practice.

Sharpen your analytical skills with these insightful features...

• Step-by-step approach ideal for both students and practitioners guides you through the health research literature, showing you the ingredients that go into a meaningful study, clues to potential study flaws, and ways to apply solid evidence in clinical practice.
• Uniform framework uses a simple six-point framework based on the mnemonic M.A.A.R.I.E. You will learn to evaluate studies in terms of Methods, Assignment, Assessment, Results, Interpretation, and Extrapolation.
• Hypothetical illustrations demonstrate the limitations of today's published studies.
• Unique learning aids—including question checklists, scenarios illustrating study design, and flaw-catching exercises—help you reinforce key facts and retain what you've learned.

NEW to the Fifth Edition...

• New "Guide to the Guidelines" section helps you make sense of established and emerging clinical guidelines, and helps you understand the role of these guidelines in practice.
• Current information on outcomes includes discussions of safety and of the effects of interactions on outcomes.
• More graphic presentation of statistics helps make complex concepts easy to grasp and apply using a flowchart of statistics.
• StudyingaStudy.com Website is an integral feature of this edition providing interactive materials for all sections of the book. The Website provides practice using the M.A.A.R.I.E. framework, interactive flaw-catching and Selecting a Statistics exercises, self-testing questions-answers and exercises using abstracts from real articles.
• Courses and Journal Clubs can now use Studying a Study and Testing a Test with the help of a special section of the Website.

Clear the path to a new understanding of evidence-based medicine...and integrate today's best evidence into tomorrow's practice. Order your copy of Studying a Study and Testing a Test, Fifth Edition today!

Now in its Fifth Edition, this best-selling text presents a step-by-step approach to critical and efficient reading of the medical literature. Health care professionals will learn how to evaluate clinical studies, identify flaws in study design, interpret statistics, and apply evidence from clinical research in practice. This edition’s new section, Guide to the Guidelines, reflects the growing use and importance of clinical guidelines. The outcomes research chapter includes concepts of safety and effects of interactions on outcomes. This edition also presents statistics more graphically. Unique learning aids include question checklists, scenarios illustrating study design, and flaw-catching exercises, plus a StudyingaStudy.com Website providing interactive materials.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Ross M. Mullner, PhD, MPH(University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description:This book provides the reader with a rigorous analytic framework for reading and evaluating medical and public health journal articles. This fifth edition has an associated Web site which provides additional examples of how to read journal articles.
Purpose:The M.A.A.R.I.E. analytical framework to read and evaluate journal articles is presented. M.A.A.R.I.E. is an acronym for method, assignment, assessment, results, interpretation, and extrapolation. This framework is used to evaluate case-control studies, cohort studies, and randomized clinical trials as well as other types of studies such as meta-analysis and clinical guidelines.
Audience:Students, residents, and practitioners of medicine and public health are the intended audience. The author is well qualified to write the work. Dr. Riegelman is a physician and professor of epidemiology-biostatistics, medicine, and health policy, and was the founding dean of the School of Public Health at George Washington University.
Features:The book's 44 chapters are grouped into six sections. The scope of this book is wide. It covers evaluating various types of medical studies, medical tests, the costs of care, clinical guidelines, and statistical methods and models. The six chapters on evaluating clinical guidelines are particularly interesting and are of great value to both the informed and uninformed reader.
Assessment:This is a thoughtful, well-written, well-organized, and very valuable guide to reading and evaluating the medical and public health literature. I recommend it highly.